A SOCIO-POLITICAL ANALYSIS of the ADOPTION of CERTAIN AMAXHOSA SURNAMES by STEMBELE JOHNSON Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requi

A SOCIO-POLITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ADOPTION OF CERTAIN AMAXHOSA SURNAMES

STEMBELE JOHNSON

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS

IN THE

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES AFRICAN LANGUAGES STUDIES RHODES UNIVERSITY GRAHAMSTOWN SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: DR M JADEZWENI CO-SUPERVISOR: PROF R KASCHULA

DECEMBER 2019

DECLARATION

I Stembele Johnson, declare that A SOCIO-POLITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ADOPTION OF CERTAIN AMAXHOSA SURNAMES is my own work and that all sources that I have used and quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of a complete reference.

Signed ……………………………..

ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge my endless gratitude and thanks to the following:

I would firstly like to thank God for making it possible for this study to get approved and paving the way from the beginning and giving me strength to finish it.

Secondly I would like to thank Dr M Jadezweni for introducing me to onomastics, and immense help and guidance from the beginning. I would also like to thank his consistency on checking up on the progress of the thesis.

Thirdly I would like to thank Professor R Kaschula for his dedication in the polishing of this work and his conscientious assistance. I wholeheartedly thank him for the extra suggestions which made this work more attractively.

Lastly to my family and friends for the support they gave me through the period of my Masters and writing of this thesis, especially my mother who have been my backbone when emotionally and physically drained.

This thesis is a dedication to my late friend Sinazo Tshongweni, during the period of writing this thesis I thank her for being my guardian angel.

May God bless them all.

SUMMARY It is always assumed when you have a white surname that you have a white lineage or your forefathers were white, and that was always my struggle in school to explain the meaning of my surname and where it came from. Not only European surnames used by amaXhosa are difficult to explain but also many isiXhosa surnames are very hard to break down and explain. This is because many word from the isiXhosa language, that are used in surnames are no longer used and if one does not know the history of certain names then it would be difficult to know the meaning of a surname or misinterpret its meaning to the modern words of isiXhosa that we know.

Surnames are not of African origin, they came from the West, but because of colonialism surnames were enforced on African people. Most of the surnames they used, are said to be names of their forefathers (ancestors), and there is a small amount or none that links to femininity in these surnames. Surnames are part of naming and naming is part of onomastics. Naming is a very important tool used among various African cultures to convey certain messages, either to an individual, family members or a community. Onomastics is multidisciplinary in nature. It can be approached from different perspectives. These include linguistic, historical, sociological, philosophical, economical and other perspectives.

This research looks at the depth of certain amaXhosa surnames and even their links to other names like, nicknames and clan names etc.

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ISISHWANKATHELO

Kukho inkolelo yokuba xa unefani eligama lomntu omhlophe, makube nawe umnombo wakho ngowomntu omhlophe okanye ookhokho bakho babemhlophe. Ndiyazi apha kum loo nto kuba yintsindabadala endandixakene nayo esikolweni xa kufuneka ndichaze ukuba ithini na intsingiselo yefani yam. Iifani zabamhlophe zinzima ukuzichaza, kukwanjalo nakwezamaXhosa, ukuzihlahluba akuyondlwana iyanetha. Isizekabani kukuba amagama ekuthiywe ngawo akasasetyenziswa, kwaye ukuba akuyazi imbali yawo kunganzima ukuyazi intsingiselo yegama eliyifani yakho, yenze ke loo nto kubenzima ukuyinqwabulula intsingiselo xa uxhomekeke kwesi siXhosa semihla ngemihla.

Umyinge weefani zabaNtsundu uphefumlelwe lifuthe laseNtshona, nto leyo eyanyanzeliswa kwabaNtsundu ngamakoloniyali, abangeneleli, ngobuntshantshathela. Kufumaniseka ukuba iifani ezininzi abazisebenzisayo abaNtsundu zithathelwa kumagama ookhokho babo, kwaye ke iba libhaqo ukuba kubekho ezo kunokuthiwa zinomrhiba wesini sokhomokazi. Ngokoluvo lobunzululwazi magama, ionomastiki ukutsho oko, iifani ezi lolunye uhlobo lokuthiya amagama. Kwinkcubeko kaNtu ukuthiya igama kwalatha injongo ethile yomthiyi kulowo unikwa igama, kusapho lwakhe okanye kuluntu ngokubanzi. Ionomastiki intlantluninzi, oko kukuthi iyindibanisela yemiba ngemiba kubume bayo. Inokuvelelwa kwiinkalo ngeenkalo ezahlukeneyo. Oku kuquka ubunzululwazi bezolwimi, ezomlando, eziphathelele kwintlalo yoluntu, iinyani ezifihlakeleyo, ezoqoqosho neminye imingxilo.

Olu phando ke ngoko luludondolo lokuzungeleza ubunzulu beefani ezikhethiweyo zamaXhosa ngokwentsingiselo, nendlela ezinokuba zinxulumene ngayo namagama afana, neziqhulo kunye neziduko.

GLOSSARY Patriclans- A clan, with membership determined by patrilineal descent from a common ancestor.

Matronyms- Name of someone’s mother

Anthroponyms- A personal name

Toponyms- Name derived from a place

Melapropism- the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with an amusing effect (e.g. ‘dance a flamingo’ instead of flamenco).

Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Introduction ...... 1 1.2 Background of the research area ...... 2 1.2.1 Naming and culture...... 3 1.2.2 Naming and Identity ...... 5 1.2.3 Names and Power Relations ...... 8 1.5 Conclusion ...... 14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND ONOMASTICS THEORY...... 16 2.1 Onomastics: What’s in a name? ...... 16 2.2 Defining Onomastics ...... 16 2.3 Proper names and Common Nouns ...... 18 2.4 Euro-western names and African names ...... 19 2.5 Gender in names ...... 23 2.6 Givers and bearers ...... 26 2.7 Conclusion ...... 28 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN ...... 30 3.1 Introduction ...... 30 3.2 Research Methods ...... 30 3.2.1 Qualitative Research ...... 33 3.2.2 Quantitative Research ...... 36 3.3 Research Design ...... 37 3.4 Data Collection methods and tools ...... 37 3.5 Sampling ...... 39 3.6 Research Process ...... 39 3.7 Challenges encountered when collecting data ...... 40 3.7.1 The interview questions ...... 41 3.7.2 Recording Research ...... 42 3.8 Ethical considerations ...... 43 3.9 Trustworthiness of the study ...... 44 3.10 Conclusion ...... 45 CHAPTER 4: ORIGINS OF AMAXHOSA SURNAMES ...... 46 4.1 Introduction ...... 46 4.2 AmaXhosa Surnames ...... 46

4.3 Link between amaXhosa surnames and other names ...... 50 4.3.1 Patronymics ...... 50 4.3.2 Nicknames ...... 51 4.3.3 Occupation ...... 52 4.3.4 Place names ...... 53 4.3.5 Clan Names ...... 54 4.4 Symbol of colonialism and apartheid...... 56 4.5 Reasons for changing or not changing Euro-western names ...... 57 4.6 European surnames used by amaXhosa ...... 59 4.7 Gender in amaXhosa surnames ...... 64 4.8 Semantics of amaXhosa Surnames ...... 66 4.9 Conclusion ...... 67 CHAPTER 5: MORPHOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SOME AMAXHOSA SURNAMES ...... 68 5.1 Introduction ...... 68 5.2 Morphology defined ...... 68 5.3 Surnames as verb stems ...... 71 5.4 Surnames derived from nouns ...... 72 5.5 Surnames derived from Negative Phrases ...... 73 5.6 Surnames derived from commands ...... 75 5.7 Conclusion ...... 75 CHAPTER 6: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS ...... 77 6.1 Introduction ...... 77 6.2 The Interviews Findings ...... 77 6.2.1 Question 1: What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? ...... 77 6.2.2 Question 2: Which gender do you think your surname represents? ...... 78 6.2.3 Question 3: Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? ...... 80 6.2.4 Question 4: What are your thoughts on ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? ...... 81 6.2.5 Question 5: As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? ...... 82 6.2.6 Question 6: Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? 83 6.2.7 Question 7: ...... 85 6.2.8 Question 8: ...... 86 6.3 Summary of Results ...... 87 6.4 Conclusion ...... 88

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CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION OF ALL FINDINGS ...... 89 7.1 Introductions ...... 89 7.2. Summary of the findings ...... 89 7.3 Recommendations ...... 91 Conclusion ...... 92 Appendix 1: Surnames Collected ...... 93 APPENDIX 2 ...... 96 APPENDIX 3 ...... 97 APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE INTERVIEWS ...... 98 APPENDIX 5 ...... 109 REFERENCE LIST ...... 112

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction In this introductory chapter, a broad definition of onomastics is presented and the objectives of the research are outlined. Onomastics is not a new field in South Africa, but it is still a developing one. In order to understand Onomastics is important to define the word ‘name’. A proper name is a word, or a specialised term, or a linguistic speech sound that is bestowed upon an individual for everybody to identify him/her with. It remains a label for that particular person until such time that circumstances create a change regarding the name.

Onomastics not only deals with understanding names and entities, but it also entails understanding the society in which the name is given. A study of names is in part a study of a society where naming takes place. It is unlikely that a scholar studying names would learn nothing about the social dynamics of the place where the research in naming practices is undertaken. Naming is part of our society and understanding names makes it easy for us to understand the society we live in and the social and political factors that influence the social behaviour of people at a given time. Names are both universal and elemental.

To say that a name is perceived as a proper name is to say that it is assigned to a level beyond which no classification is necessary. Name avoidance is a key expression of power relations and some form or other appears to be common to all societies. The power to name is a politically charged power. Alia (1996) states that the right to bestow names is a right which signifies that the name has power. It is not always the case that individuals who are given the right to bestow names are those most powerful in more general terms, across society. Names, whether of people or places, are significant and profound. It is for this reason that a person who names others feels proud of the identity that they create when they name a person, or even an object. If one denies the name given to them, then that is a sign of disgrace to the name giver.

Denying or ignoring of naming mores within one’s own society is partly due to the taking-for granted of daily life, but it also amounts to a kind of avoidance. As alluded to above, this Chapter will explain the aims and objectives of the study and explain the background of the study on how names are of particular importance in our society (concentrating on Eastern

Cape amaXhosa society), in regards to culture, identity and power relations. The chapter will further explain the outline of the thesis and provide chapter summaries.

1.2 Background of the research area Simelane, (2014) points out that if names from cultures that do not have written documents are studied, they can in the same way as oral literature assist the researcher to reconstruct a people’s history and, culture. Naming in African societies is a very important process. Names are important elements of human language and they connect to every field of human activity, for example, culture, religion, etc. According to Simelane (2014), names have roles in people’s lives and people are named according to expectations and emotions.

Naming among amaXhosa is important as it reflects the cultural values and traditions of their daily lives and experiences. In amaXhosa societies, everything has a name according to its role or the role that people want it to play (Simelane, 2014). According to amaXhosa, no one bears a name without a rationale, and no name exists without an explanation or a justification. Bosch and De Klerk (1995), state that among amaXhosa parents, the meaning of personal names plays an important role, whereas English parents more readily choose names based on aesthetic appeal or personal whim. This means that the meaning of names is more important to amaXhosa parents than the sound, length or appeal of the name.

AmaXhosa people have a maximum of four names, a personal name given to them by the family after birth, a Christian/school name (most of the time an English name), a surname and a clan name. When a child is born, they inherit the surname and clan because of the family to which they belong. Most of the time when the child is born they take the surname and clan name of the father if the parents are married.

Clan names in amaXhosa society have been there for many decades, but surnames are names that came from outside of South Africa. Therefore I intend to argue that surnames are not of African origin, but have grown amongst us and have been passed on for generations and they have changed and been accepted over time. Neethling (1996) is of the opinion that the term ‘surname’ is a French term ‘sur nom’ which means nickname, thus the ‘sur’ in surname originated from the Latin word, meaning ‘on/in addition/above’.

Machaba, (2004), argues that trying to find the origin of surnames might leave us wandering without direction, because of the inaccuracy of facts as to when surnames were firstly used among the indigenous people. Colonial administration, bureaucracy, and keeping of registers are apparently some reasons that led white people or European administrators to introduce surnames among indigenous people, whether these were names of clans, names of animals, praise names or names of their fathers. The adoption of surnames was to distinguish one person from another because there were various people with the same first names (Dorward, 1995 cited in Neethling, 1996).

Surnames became more important during the apartheid time and that particular government enforced the use of surnames on indigenous people. Some Africans never chose their surnames but were given surnames by their employers or their father’s employers, named after their fathers, taken from their nicknames; for example Swaartbooi (meaning black boy). An argument can be built from this - that some amaXhosa surnames are racist, because at the time amaXhosa people acquired such surnames, it was at the height of , apartheid. Many surnames in South Africa owe a root to a patronymic system, because male names dominated the acquisition of surnames among indigenous people in South Africa.

1.2.1 Naming and culture A name is used to identify (and classify) a particular person, the chosen word can be used to send a message, to express a wish, hope or prayer, to resonate with the past and with selected national and religious groups, or simply to sound good. Naming is a specifically linguistic act, revealing the complexities of social relationships, roles and statuses. One of the many ways in which language and culture go hand in hand concerns the naming process and the ways in which different cultures select and assign names.

Naming patterns tend to reflect the influence of cultural values (see Kelly, 1999, for research on the use of violent images in the names of towns and businesses in honour states (for example, United States)). It is suspected that one such influence might derive from the patriarchal, patrilineal social systems that so often appear to characterize honour cultures. Research on namesaking suggests that the use of patronyms increases attachment bonds and perceptions of genetic relatedness (Daly & Wilson, 1982; Finch, 2008; McAndrew, King, & Honoroff, 2002). For example, Jankowiak and Woodman (2002) report that mothers with children born out of wedlock are more likely to use patronyms when naming their children, a

3 strategy designed to promote paternity confidence and increased investment by men in their putative offspring (Furstenberg & Talvitie, 1980).

In a culture in which a husband’s honour depends on his wife’s faithfulness, men should be particularly vigilant for signs of infidelity and especially any behaviour that is likely to engage in processes that diminish paternity uncertainty (Maner, Miller, Rouby, & Gailliot, 2009). Thus, in honour cultures (African cultures), the use of patronyms might also function as a subtle assertion of a child’s paternity (and thus the putative father’s honour) at both a private and a public level. The use of personal names from one generation to the next might also play into such a social system, cementing intergenerational bonds in a fashion similar to that of surnames. Indeed, the intergenerational use of personal names predated the use of surnames, which are a modern invention not used consistently throughout the Western world until the 18th and 19th centuries.

Furthermore, the use of personal names could compensate for the fact that surnames are not passed down through daughters to their own children in patrilineal systems, but only through sons to theirs. Thus, a daughter’s use of her mother’s or father’s personal name in the naming of her own children could serve to communicate solidarity with her family of origin despite having taken on a new surname upon marriage, a common practice in many cultures. Likewise, a son’s use of his own personal name (which he might have inherited from his male ancestors) in the naming of his sons could signal and reinforce the bonds of identity and kinship across generations. The use of patronyms, relative to matronyms, might have special importance within patriclans, insofar as they connect new generations of males within a family to older patriarchs within the family system, thus identifying new-born sons with powerful male figures (Alford, 1988; Bodenhorn & Vom Bruck, 2006; Fischer, 1989; Rossi, 1965).

At the most basic level, names identify and distinguish people, places, and things. Besides identification and distinction, however, names can also connote relationships. For instance, rules of etiquette in some cultures dictate that a person’s personal name should not be used on first acquaintance, especially for someone of high relative social status, unless that person gives explicit permission. Likewise, the use of a nickname or a “pet” name is something that only close relationship partners are typically allowed to use. Modern surnames in the English- speaking world also identify individuals, while simultaneously indicating kinship. Thus, it

4 could be argued that personal names in the modern era tend to serve individuation and relational functions, whereas surnames tend to serve more collective and kinship functions, such as Johnson, “the son of John,” and MacDonald, “the son of Donald.” When one names a baby and a word is consciously chosen to refer to a specific child, that word has enormous potential symbolic power. It has become evident that personal naming practices interact in significant ways with various patterns of social and cultural organisation and can be keys to broader cultural changes, in view of their intimate connections with values, traditions, hopes, fears and events in people’s lives. (See e.g., Beattie 1957; Alford 1987; Herbert and Bogatsu 1990; Suzman 1994.)

1.2.2 Naming and Identity The concept of ‘identity’ means different things to different people. In more cases than not, the social organization and the history of a particular country plays a major role in the construction of identities of people living in that country. A person may have different identities depending on where the person finds herself at a given time. For example, a white person may identify herself as an African because she identifies with the African landscape where she has been raised. The same person may identify herself as a European because that is where she draws her heritage and culture from. A person may have more than one sense of self i.e. may identify with various people who in turn may not identify with each other. This suggests that no one person has one identity in the eyes of the society in which she lives.

Names (surnames and personal names) also identify people. It is from the names, among other things, that one can distinguish and identify Africans from Europeans. It is true, however, that because of various social changes, names alone, cannot always be used to distinguish Africans from European people. Names, however, can still in most cases be used to identify the person’s cultural heritage. It is for this reason that some Africans with European surnames change their European surnames to African surnames so that they can be regarded as more African.

According to Trull in http://www.parascope.com/articles/slips/fs1403.htm: For instance, "Peggy-Sue Khumalo" was not the slaughter happy "Miss South Africa's name at birth. A few months before the pageant, Peggy Priscilla Erasmus legally changed her name to Peggy Priscilla Khumalo, and promptly changed it again to Nonhlanhla Peggy-Sue Khumalo. A South African commentator observed that such

name changes are fashionable in the post-apartheid era, "Erasmus being an Afrikaner oppressor name, whereas "Khumalo" is a liberated, guilt free Zulu name.

In a similar vein, http://www.geocities.com/southafrica2000/spirits.htm reads: The 21 year old Peggy-Sue Khumalo, hailed as an "African beauty" and plain Zulu girl" was elected Miss South Africa on August 25th, 1996. Five days later it emerged that she was indeed Peggy Priscilla Erasmus, 24 years old, who had her names changed first to Peggy Priscilla Khumalo and subsequently to Nonhlanhla Peggy-Sue Khumalo, as was published in the Government Gazette on April 4th, 1996. She explained: ‘The spirits of my forefathers do not like the surname Erasmus. Since I have changed my surname to Khumalo, it is going very well with me. For example, I received more job offers’. From the above quotes it can be argued that identities in the form of names can be manipulated to serve people’s interests at a particular time.

Sometimes we try and live up to our names. Sometimes we try to run away from them. However, and for all the options in between your name is a crucial factor in developing your sense of self, and thus propel you forward on various paths of life and career. A name, or identity, is a powerful thing. It is a descriptor that allows people to make quick judgements and assumptions about us. While we can understand the harm of assumptions, for the human mind it is fast away to categorize a lot of information in a short amount of time. Assumptions also give social context for the ‘rules’ we need to interact with new and different people (Machaba, 2014).

Names and identities are our first impressions. How we dress, the way we wear our hair, how we behave, and even where we go all begins with our identity and what we call ourselves. Whether it is religion, sexuality, or gender, if it is part of an identity then it will influence how you present yourself to the world and how you interact with the world. The crucial factors in creating an identity are that it describes who you are and it is self-chosen. Our names and identities describe who we currently are. It is a present-day representation of how we perceive ourselves in this world.

The name and identity that we have at 15 years old may be different from that when we are 25 or 50 years old. As we grow, change, and have new experiences what we call ourselves

6 may change as well. Our identity is self-chosen, other people may give us names (e.g. our parents) and labels (e.g. society) but an identity can only come from us. An identity represents how we perceive ourselves and how we want other people to perceive us. A label is a descriptor given to us by others based on their stereotypes of us. Depending on the situation and circumstances, what we call ourselves may change. Perhaps our identity changes over time. What once resonated with us no longer does. Identity is a personal process and decision about what you call yourself. It is a process that is complex and full and fluid. It may change with time, or it may change with the environment or circumstances.

On the primary function of names, Brennen (2000:144) defines identity as, “a relatively stable self-picture, which consists of the opinions, attitudes, habits and beliefs that last relatively unchanged over long periods of time”. Pfukwa (2007:121) is of the opinion that “Naming and renaming become an act of claiming and rewriting an identity. To name the self is a declaration of independence from wider social control and it is a choice in identity. Whether society accepts this self-chosen identity is quite another matter. A person’s name is a valuable clue to his/her nationality or mother tongue which is also part of his/her identity…” as in the name Thando ‘love’ (in isiXhosa); Nombeko ‘mother of respect’ (in isiXhosa); Puleng ‘in the rain’ (in Sesotho).

At a societal level, names can tell us much about gender (Nobuhle – mother of beauty), religion (Ntandoyenkosi - the Lord’s will), class (Nomfundo – mother of education – which reflects neutrality and sophistication). The bestowal of a name is a symbolic contract between the society and the individual. From one side of the contract, by bestowing the name, the society confirms the individual’s existence as well as acknowledging its responsibilities towards the name-bearer. The name differentiates the child from others; thus, the society will be able to treat and deal with the child as someone with needs and feelings different from those of other people. Through the name, the individual becomes part of the history of the society, and, because of the name, his or her deeds will exist separately from the deeds of others.

On the secondary function of names, Dundes (1983) and Joseph (2004) are of the opinion that identity is a reciprocal process that operates at two levels: How the individual or group projects or perceives itself. How the reader or recipient perceives the projected identity. Hearing a person's name for the first time may project humorous connotations. The

7 phenomenon may be frequent when hearing names from other languages as in the amaXhosa boys’ names, Philile (one who is living/alive/well) or Thandekile (the loved one). These might be humorous to an isiZulu speaking person because these names to them are mostly given to girls.

However, Brennen (2000) argues that, over time, such a name loses its ability to raise even a smile. “The urge to smile at the holder of the name because of the name fades and after repeated exposures the name is no longer processed semantically”. Projected connotations are closely linked with the expectations of the parents. By receiving a name, the individual implicitly accepts membership in the society and agrees to follow its rules and customs, for example a person by the name of Gcinabazali (taking care of the parents) is expected to look after his parents when they get older. Sibani (light) is expected to bring light to difficult situations that the family is faced with. A boy by the name of Ntsikayekhaya (pillar of the household) is believed to be the one who will give his family a better life when he grows up. Names may express a whole way of life as in the name Hlalezwini (staying in the Word), religious practices as in the name Mnikelo (an offering), social systems as in the name Hlalisile (staying with them), and cultural traditions as in the name Nomsebenzi (mother of ancestral rituals).

1.2.3 Names and Power Relations There are various factors that influence naming of both people and places. As Shabalala (1999:106) puts it: “Every community has its own social dynamics, caused by various factors including political, social, economic and legal factors.” Naming is an act of power. For example, the government with the power vested in it, has the authority to devise policies or procedures that could be followed when changing names when it has decided on changing geographical names. While the issue of what names should be changed is debatable, the act of changing names is not debatable. In most African countries, various social changes were witnessed when colonialism was eradicated. Although it was hoped that the attainment of independence in various states would bring about positive changes to the Africans, this hope was not realised in all African countries.

In trying to eradicate some of the injustices (human rights violations, oppression, discrimination, etc.) introduced and perpetuated by colonialism, many people in African countries saw it not just necessary but imperative to change not just their names but also the

8 names of their countries and various institutions to symbolise their newly acclaimed independence.

South Africa has not been affected by much economic hardship as has been witnessed in countries like the DRC, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Unlike in many African countries, where the first democratically elected presidents insisted on holding office for a lifetime, President Nelson Mandela was one of the very few African leaders who only took one term of office and stepped down willingly. Socially, there have been various changes in South Africa, and there has been the adoption of African personal and geographical names, and in some instances, adoption of parents’ names as second names, especially adoption of fathers’ names by men.

Neethling (2000:212-213) states that: The change of political scene since 1994 (and to some extent a few years before that already) also saw a predictable change in the nature and prominence of onomastic data. All non-African language communities in South Africa had up till that time by and large been ‘shielded’ from big scale exposure to names with an African language origin because of the socio-political systems.

It has been witnessed that when political, social and economic factors change in various places, they impact on people’s behaviour and way of life. The changing political and social factors in South Africa have had an impact on the way people view their surroundings and on their aspirations. This has led to the change in naming patterns and in some instances the adoption of African names. The recent name changing patterns in South Africa cannot be separated from the change in political and social factors in the country. Meiring (1994:65) says that because names reflect how people think and how they reflect the world around them, they will ultimately be targets for change.

It is argued that before the demise of apartheid non-African language communities in South Africa were not only shielded from big scale exposure to African names, but shielded themselves and in most cases ignored the existence of African names and African languages. African languages were seen as not important and the focus was on English and Afrikaans as they were the only official languages. Name changing in South Africa is characterised by among other issues the racial distinctions that have been prevailing in the country for

9 decades. It should be borne in mind that when the white people were governing the country, the dominant names were those derived from Euro-western languages; however, with the demise of the apartheid system, African names are now replacing some of the Euro-western names.

Nowadays, with the African government in place, name changing is viewed as blacks against whites rather than as an attempt to eradicate the injustices of the apartheid system and building a new rainbow nation. It is viewed as having little to do with painting the country in a manner that will be reflective of cultural diversity and that will create harmony among the diverse South African population. It is argued that some names are changed not because they have negative connotations or evoke negative feelings, but because they are Euro-western. The name change from Grahamstown to Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province is a case in point and these debates have manifested in local newspapers (see Grocotts Mail).

Unlike in other African countries like the DRC, in South Africa people are not forced by the government to use African names as their personal names. The trend recently, however, has been the use of African names. There is no law or rule in South Africa that prohibits a person/parent from giving a Euro-western name to her child. However, changing naming patterns and adoption of African names have been witnessed. There are various reasons that are attributed to the Africanisation of personal and geographical names in South Africa.

The formal and informal rules of naming help to clarify the ways in which political reality is shaped in a given society. Negative naming and renaming are one of the rules of naming. Negative-naming is the giving of ‘ugly’ or otherwise low-priority names is a deliberate strategy for protecting a child or adult from harm. Renaming is for personal and political change: any substantial regime change or change of dominance and power is inevitably accompanied by changes to personal and place names. Taking control of naming is an important component of the process of assuming political power and is a fundamental part of social and charged power.

While personal name changing is a private issue, which does not require people to justify to the nation why they changed their names, place name changing is a public issue that affects various people living in places that have been earmarked for name changing. It is for this reason that by removing the Euro-western names from public places in South Africa, the

African National Congress (ANC) government is viewed as sending a message to the former government and people who supported it that South Africa is now the ANC’s territory and it does not want whatever identity that was created by the former government to be reflected when naming places.

Change is a painful, interesting and emotional event. Change evokes feelings of insecurity, fear of the unknown and with names it evokes fear of losing the identity that has already been created. The names of various places are not just mere labels that people use to identify places. Though some people might not be aware of the lexical or dictionary meaning of the place, they usually have emotional attachments to various places. It is for this reason that name changing evokes conflict among various people. Various name changes in South Africa have been proposed and not only personal and place names, but names of institutions like Rhodes University under the banner of #RhodesMustFall.

Regardless of various views on recent name changing in South Africa, names have been changed and continue to be changed. The change amongst names not only is seen as a loss but a gain for others. Is it a gain to the values and traditions of the African culture and African names, an example of this is double-barrel surnames. Double-barrelled surnames mean a surname that comprises more than one surname. This surname is usually made up of the women’s maiden surname and that of her husband. In most cases the woman’s maiden surname appears before her husband’s.

Though some scholars argue that double-barrelled surnames are originally an African form of address, it is argued that these surnames are traditionally not African, however, as identities change, Africans have accepted this phenomenon. It is argued that women traditionally were addressed by their father’s names because that was their identity. They did not have to assume new identities when they got married. It was for this reason that in some instances, when a married African woman was unable to have children, her sister was asked to bear children for her, mainly because the child had to come from the married woman’s family.

When a newly married woman was about to give birth to her first child, she was sent to her parents’ home for them to look after her. Therefore, the practice of addressing women as daughter of so-and-so did not originate from polygamous societies, it originated in the social life and philosophy of the African people.

Double-barrelled surnames are most prevalent among prominent women in the South African government. These include Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Manto Shabalala-Msimang, Sanki Mthembu-Mahanyele, to mention a few. These names, however, are also dominant among women who are not politicians. These include Khanyi Dlomo-Mkhize. Like the Nguni possessive prefix ka-, double-barrel surnames are also used in conjunction with surnames derived from English or Afrikaans, thereby bringing new linguistic forms to the fore, for example Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and Felicia Mabuza-Suttle. Women adopting this linguistic form are reclaiming their roots by addressing themselves using their father’s identities. By adopting their husband’s names, however, they are not just changing the identities they want to maintain, but causing confusion about African forms of address.

In a country like South Africa, where various social changes have taken place, it is not easy to identify all African cultural practices because these have been fused with Euro-western cultural practices. Although changes can be adopted in various forms of address among South Africans, it bears noting that some of these changes may never be formalised. Although people are now using various traditional forms of address, some of these forms of address were lost in the advent of colonialism and reviving and formalising them (to have the status they once had) is going to be very challenging and costly for Africans. Changing the Western forms of address that we are now familiar with to the old traditional forms of address, is not just going to be costly, but will be confusing, time consuming and emotionally trying.

1.3 Research Aims and Objectives

Surnames are part of our identity and as individuals we have to associate with them because they are significant and symbolic in our cultures. Many researchers have pointed out that surnames are not of African, but of Western origin. The idea was introduced to Africans by the Western colonisers/missionaries. The clear understanding of using surnames was that back then, there were many people with the same names and therefore surnames were introduced to differentiate people with the same first name. Even though surnames have grown to be part of our identities, as Africans we identify ourselves more with our clan names and they are mostly more valued than surnames. A list of surnames can be found in Appendix 1.

Therefore is was of great interest to me as a researcher and an African particularly a Xhosa South African woman, to understand the history of surnames and to make the society understand the importance of our surnames as Africans and particularly amaXhosa surnames.

The purpose and aim of this research firstly was to add more views, opinions and research to the onomastics field as it has not much developed. Furthermore, and more specifically the purpose of this research was to make people more aware of the names they carry and the significance of names. This research is not developed to discourage people to not have surnames, but to add more meaning to them and explaining how they were formed. I obtained the motivation for this research from my own surname ‘Johnson’, asking myself how I got a ‘European’ surname whilst I am black. The purpose of this contribution is to analyse the onomastics content of surnames within amaXhosa. It is clear that these surnames represent rich material in the history of amaXhosa, where events took place that shaped the course of history or gave rise to controversy and repercussions.

This investigation seeks to find the nature and history of some African surnames (particularly amaXhosa surnames). Its other purpose is to determine the influence of gender on surnames and to investigate the link of surname formation to other names. Therefore, this research looks into the semantics of amaXhosa surnames and how gender plays a role in the formation of surnames. The following questions were answered in this research:

1. How were amaXhosa surnames formulated (semantics)? 2. What is the role of gender and culture with regards to surname formation? 3. What is the role of the community with regards to surnames?

The Objectives of this research are -To investigate the nature and history of certain amaXhosa surnames; -To determine the impact of gender on surnames and to investigate the link of surname formation to other names.

1.4 Thesis outline

Chapter 1 of the research has explained the background context of the research and the aims and objectives of the research, and this chapter helps one understand what the research is

13 about and what the researcher is trying to achieve. Chapter 2 explains the onomastic theory because one cannot explain surnames without defining the discipline of onomastics. A literature review is also presented which explains the history of surnames and it provides the reader with a better understanding about amaXhosa surnames. Chapter 3 explains the methods that have been used for data collection. This chapter further explains the interviews that were done by the researcher and refers to how data was collected. Chapter 4 deals with the origins of amaXhosa surnames and provides examples of surnames. Chapter 5 looks at the semantics of these surnames and their link to other names, for example personal names and clan names, etc. Chapter 6 analyses the interviews and further discusses the results found by the researcher. Chapter 7 is the conclusion where the researcher provides a summary of the findings and recommendations for further researchers who may be interested in research about naming and particularly surnames.

1.5 Conclusion The eariest records of Onomastics research in South Africa date back to Gordons diaries which the book was published by Charles Pettman in 1931 titled‘South African place name’. Even though onomastics is not a relatively new field in South Africa, however its multidisciplinary nature and the abundance of data, invites more studies to be conducted. Names have a specific meaning to every nation since names convey the history and culture of that particular nation while also evoking memories of love or bitterness within members of that nation. Names reflect the way in which people think and see the world around them (Meiring 1994: 67). Just like amaXhosa naming which reflects their cultural identity.

It is important to understand where society’s names come from so that we understand the reason behind the names that are given. In understanding the society then we are able to understand the different cultures in society and their patterns of naming. Names do not only reflect our society, but also our identities and how they change over time. Identities change and so do our names, depending on the circumstances or even to serve people’s interests at a certain time. From the above information collected it is seen that not only name givers have a power in names, but also the government when it comes to the changing of names, especially in South Africa. South Africa has had immense change when it comes to name changing, both personal names and names of places.

With the demise of apartheid, a number of Africans in South Africa saw Euro-western names as symbols of colonialism and of apartheid. Some people do not bother to ask how they came to get the Euro-western names they possess. As a result of transformation some people have changed their names and also geographical locations have changed to African names.

In the chapter that follows, I provide a critique and summary of onomastics theory as part of my literature review. This theory underpins my data presentation in chapter 6.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND ONOMASTICS THEORY

2.1 Onomastics: What’s in a name? A study of names is in part a study of a society where naming takes place. It is unlikely that a scholar studying names would learn nothing about the social dynamics of the place where the research in naming practices is undertaken (Machaba, 2004). However, before one can understand the term ‘Onomastics’ they have to define the term ‘name’. Naming is a very important tool used among various African cultures to convey certain messages, either to an individual, family members or to a community. Naming of various objects is linked with the socio-political factors of countries where anthroponyms and toponyms are found. It is for this reason that onomastics (the study of names) can never be isolated from studying the dynamics of various societies, as well as the behaviour and the psychology of different individuals (Machaba, 2004).

2.2 Defining Onomastics Onomastics or onomatology is defined as the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. It is also a scientific study of names; names may include personal names, place names, birds names etc. Crystal (1985) defines onomastics as: A branch of semantics, which studies the etymology of institutionalised (proper) names, such as names of people (anthroponymy) and places (toponym).

This definition is not convincing enough because onomastics is a broader category, which does not only deal with semantics, but also deals with linguistics and socio-linguistics. Onomastics goes beyond looking at names of people and places.

Ngubane (2000) defines onomastics as: The study of names and involves a variety of complex naming techniques. Onomastics as a science has no ending but is open-ended, accommodating new thought and innovations through naming in any of the language of the people of the earth.

Burchfield (1981), cited in Chauke (1992:5) defines onomastics as: The scientific study of names as names, that is, of the human habit naming thing.

From the above definitions it is evident that onomastics cannot be termed only as linguistic study, but also as a scientific study because it not only looks at meanings of names of people and places, but understanding the dynamics that involve naming the type of names that are of interest to the researcher.

Raper (1987:78) defines onomastics as having …as its objects the study of proper names. A proper name, like any other linguistics sign, consists of a sound sequence which may be represented graphically, and has a ‘sense’ or ‘meaning’. It also has the function of referring to, or designating, an extra- linguistic entity.

This definition is relevant to names as linguistic signs in that any linguistic sign consists of a sound sequence that may be represented graphically and has ‘sense’ or ‘meaning’. Names are more that linguistic signs used to refer or to identify an entity.

A distinction between a name and word must be given clearly when defining onomastics. Words are used to refer to certain entities, for example the word ‘man’ refers to an adult male. Names are social entities relevant to a particular society. It is in names that one can learn the dynamics of certain societies. Therefore, studying names in isolation of the society they are given can never be done.

Machaba (2004:22) defines onomastics as: A branch of sociolinguistics that comprises naming, renaming and denaming of entities. Onomastics as a study goes beyond looking at the linguistic features of names, but also looks at the socio-cultural and psychological factors that influence the choice of a name given to an entity by the name giver.

This definition makes sense because naming does not happen in a vacuum, but in society and names are not given out without explanation or expectations. Therefore, I define Onomastics in simple terms as the study of proper names, looking into semantics and history to understand the meaning of these names and how they evolved. It is a sociolinguistic study of proper names, in relation to society, politics and culture.

2.3 Proper names and Common Nouns Proper names and Common nouns may look similar, however, their function is different. The English Dictionary defines a word as one of the units of speech or writing that is the smallest meaningful element of a language, although linguistics would analyse these further into morphemes. A name is a word or term by which a person or thing is commonly and distinctively known. Therefore, it can be concluded that names are formed from words and every proper noun has a common noun equivalent, but not every common noun has a proper equivalent.

Nicolaisen (1976:147) is of the opinion that, words clearly have a much lower survival rate than names, a fact which increases the value of toponymic raw material to the scholar, the further back we go in history and prehistory. The power of survival names have, must be due to the fact that as we have seen, onomastic items function perfectly well without any lexical meaning whatsoever, a characteristic which permits them not only to survive the lexical material from which they have been created but to outlive the death of the very languages which coined them.

Gardiner (1957:7) makes a distinction between words and names when he says, When we speak of a ‘word’ our minds travel from the sound-sign to whatever it may mean; when we speak of a ‘name’ we imply that there exists something to which a certain sound-sign corresponds.

The distinction between words and names lies between meaning and function, for example words mean and names function. The function of a name is to uniquely identify an entity. Unlike words which can be used without knowing their meaning, word should be used in context and as a result the meaning of words is important to convey the intended message (Nicolaisen, 1976). Therefore, common nouns identify individual entities, while proper nouns refer to the entire class/category of things.

Names of any type do not exist in isolation. A close relationship between society and a language in which names are found exists, as names form an important part of a language. Raper (1987) states that names are an integral part of a language and a primary function of a language is to communicate. It would therefore seem to be unreasonable to assume that

18 names have no meaning at all. Language may be described as a social instrument used by members of society to communicate with one another; hence names are crucial in everyday communication.

The name-forming process is a derivational one as all names are derived from a primary source in a language (Koopman, 1979:153). The fact that naming is not simply a linguistic matter, but a social and a psychological matter is demonstrated by various naming practices adopted by people from different cultural backgrounds. While names can unite communities, they can also serve as a dividing tool in various communities. It is from names that one can learn the various cultures that have been present in a particular place, and have an understanding and the appreciation of the history of a place (Machaba, 2004). Naming and culture go hand in hand and that also concerns the naming process, how names are also selected and assigned in different cultures. Personal naming practices interact in significant ways that various patterns of social and cultural organisations can be keys to broader cultural changes, in view of their intimate connection with values, traditions, hopes, fears and events in people’s lives. Names are chosen for different reasons and they carry significance.

Unlike words, proper names confirm to the phonetic patterns of specific languages, they are generally not listed in dictionaries. Proper names differ from common nouns in that the reference of proper names is unique in picking out specific people, places or institutions as opposed to the loose and relatively vague set of referents of common nouns (Bosch & De Klerk, 1995).

2.4 Euro-western names and African names Names of people are found within a society. The society plays a major role in influencing the choice of names given to a particular person. As a result of the society’s influence in naming, names of various people reflect their origin and culture. The reason why many people do not want to identify themselves with Euro-western names, is because these names do not reflect their culture as Africans. Instead, they identify them as people who uphold Euro-western cultures and not African cultures.

Long before the arrival of the Europeans, Africans had their own cultural value systems, which they treasured as much as their heritage. It is regrettable that the Europeans did not think about the promotion of these value systems when they first met the Africans. The aim

19 of the Europeans was to change everything that had to do with African culture and tradition, such as the indigenous personal naming process, because African cultural values were associated with heathenism, lack of civilization and paganism. The Europeans imposed their social, economic, political and religious systems on Africans because they believed that their systems represented Christianity and civilization.

When it to comes to naming, many African people think using these European names is a betrayal of our culture and our being humanity, dignity and self-worth i.e. to be given and to make use of European names. People also share the views of upholding cultural values and starting with having an African name, because one’s cultural identity is of importance. Molefe (1999) says a defining factor of being an African is having an African name, therefore why should people bear Euro-western names that do not define our culture and us as a people. I do not agree with this statement because to be an African is not defined by having an African name and also African names do not indicate that one is true to one’s identity. It is argued that as identity means a sense of self, this sense of self has various definitions and characteristics for different people. While to some people, African names are not an indication of African identity, to others the departing point of being an African is speaking an African language and having an African name.

Just like changing of an African name does not strip one of their African identity, but of the values of the culture. However, people have the right to change their names as they want to fit into the identity that they are comfortable with. Disputing that name changing reflects African culture and origin, an Echo newspaper reader, in the Echo of 15 October 1998, wrote: ‘I have no problem with people who wish to change to an African name. It is the association of the name with “being true to one's identity” that I have a problem with. I have a problem when it is presented as a statement about African culture and one’s attitude to that culture. It gives an impression that those of us like myself who have not adopted this are not being true to our identity and do not see doing this as important.’

Naming is a specifically linguistic act, revealing the complexities of social, roles and statuses. Finegan and Besnier (1989) state that language is primarily a system of signs, not symbols, and western society naming is primarily a system of reference, not symbolisation. Herbert and Bogatsu (1990:3) are of the opinion that:

The criterion most often employed in distinguishing African and Western names is that of name meaningfulness. It is well known that African names ‘have meaning’ and that speakers identify with that meaning. Western names, on the other hand, are very largely devoid of meaning for modern speakers.

In a similar vein, amaXhosa consider the name of the person to be much more than a mere appendage by which a person is addressed. It is an integrated part of the person, a reflection of their personality and of their whole being. This is why when a person receives a new status they also receive a new name to signify that they are now a new person, not only entitled but also able, to perform the new role which accompanies the new status. An example of this in the amaXhosa society are the cultural practices of Ukwaluka and Ukwenda.

Ulwaluko is when young men go to the mountain to be taught how to become better men. The practice differs in African cultures and is not done by some of them. This cultural practice is seen as an act of a true man because if you do not go to the mountain then you are not considered man enough. When the men come back from the initiation school they come back with a new name which matched their new identity and they are not all the time called by it but they have to also act according to it, together with living up to their personal name. Apart from being given a second personal name they also inherit the word ‘bhuti’, which means brother and signifies that they are now older and they have to be respected.

Ukwenda is when a woman gets married. When they get accepted into the new family after a ceremony where they eat utsiki (goat meat), they are given a new name. This new name is used as their new one and anyone who calls them by their personal name may be said to be disrespectful unless it is a family member. This name does not change in the South African identity document because it is a cultural name and is not recognised by the state but by the ancestors of the new family. Apart from having a new name married woman also change their surnames, therefore half of their identity changes to match that of the new family they are married to.

Machaba (2004) says it is concluded according to research that African names of any entity are meaningful and significant. To African people Euro-western names have little or no lexical meaning. The lexical meaning in most Euro-western names has been lost, so that these names usually carry associative meaning. In most Euro-western societies, personal names are

21 chosen by various people for different reasons, for example Susan, Jennifer etc., may be chosen because they are names of grandparents and relatives. However, in the African culture that cannot be done without the rationale of whether the child looks like that person or the child has traits that are similar. In simple terms in the African culture being given someone else’s name has a lot of burdens attached to it.

Nicolaisen (1976: 154) is of a similar view when he says Comparatively few parents in Europe or in European-derived societies name their children because they are aware of the lexical meaning of a name and deem it appropriate and that despite many books of the “how to name a baby” variety. It is doubtful whether there are so many Margarets, Bridgets and Williams around who were so named because they were thought to be ‘pearls’, ‘high goddess’ or ‘helmets of resolution.

Unlike Euro-western parents, African parents do not look for names in the ‘how to name a baby’ book because naming to them is done from experiences that they have been through or expectations they have of their children.

Some European names that have meaning are those that are mostly the ones that have been translated from African languages to Euro-western languages. Some Euro-western names that are given to Africans, are accepted because they only have an onomastic meaning. So we can conclude and say that Euro-western names are not given in relation to culture but because of popular names or names that they think suit their children. There are no expectations in their naming. Mathangwane and Gardiner (1998:79) state that: While English names given for religious reasons are from the Bible, for example, Elijah, Joseph, Margaret, Samuel, Veronica, Psalm and so on, in African names the semantic link very clearly involved some communication with God. These included thanking God for the child or some other communication with God, e.g. Sipho 'gift'; Enkosi 'Thank you God'; Mpendulo 'answer' from God (when he at least gave them a baby boy) and many others.

Musere (1996: 89) is of the opinion that: African personal names have several functions. ... They infer one as an inhabitant (or a descendant of an inhabitant) of a locality. Names also associate one with phenomena

that are prevalent in one’s area of habitation, and they also depict the past and present modes of production and living in an area. They commemorate major occurrences or traditions at the time of the birth of a child. Personal names commonly describe physical, physiological, or behavioural characteristics of a newborn. They display the mode of birth, the quantity of births in the family, and the progeny sequence of birth.

Some African people question the adoption of Euro-western names by Africans, but most Euro-western people do not have African names. It is conceivable that there are a number of Euro-western people in South Africa with African names. It is debatable whether their African names do appear in their identity documents or whether these names are used only in informal contexts. However, there are identity documents of a Euro-western person in South African with an African name, for example Nomvula Mara Horowitz and others. However, they are not many but these exist, especially nowadays because African names are becoming more and more popular. During the colonial periods when Africans were using Euro-western names, African names were not popular among the white population of the country. The reason why some African people do not want Euro-western names is because most European people do not have African names.

Some people use their Euro-western names because others cannot pronounce their African names, but this should not be the case in this new generation because each person has a right to be called by the name they are comfortable with and not change their name to accommodate others.

2.5 Gender in names The term “gender” when applied to human beings has been given various definitions by different scholars and researchers alike. The common idea is that while sex is biologically determined, gender is a socially and culturally constructed phenomenon. There is, however a strong relationship between gender and sexuality. While Harding (1986) cited in Berge and Ve (2000:19) distinguished between three interrelated forms of gender, i.e. ‘gender structure’, ‘gender symbolism’ and ‘individual gender’, Johnson (1995) states that: Although gender is a word with a long history of diverse usages, its sociological meaning refers to cultural ideas that construct images and expectations of females and males.... Gender is usually defined around ideas about male and female personality traits and behavioral tendencies that take the form of opposites.

Function and responsibility in various societies have in many instances been defined according to gender and sexuality. In order for the society to be functional, various responsibilities have been accorded to people according to their gender. There are those roles that were and still are regarded as being feminine, for example cooking, cleaning, etc. and those that were and in some instances still are ascribed as being masculine, for example making decisions for the household. The scope of this study does not, however, allow me to address issues of gender inequality in South Africa or Africa as such. In African thought, it is acceptable that men and women were made to be different in order to assist and complement each other.

Gender roles had an influence in the naming systems of South African people. In South Africa like in many other countries, roles of various people were and in some cases still are defined according to biological composition. Manicom (2001:134) is of the opinion that: Biology is a western construction for organising the social world and gender is based on an ideology of biological determinism.

This cultural logic is actually a ‘bio-logic’. She asserts that social categories like ‘woman’ are based on body-type and are elaborated in relation to and in opposition to another category: man, based on the presence or absence of certain organs, which determines social position. Therefore, biological determinism, or body-reasoning as she terms it, is inherent in western thought.

By virtue of most societies in South Africa being patriarchal societies, naming was the responsibility of men. In some cases, women were involved in the naming of the children, but their involvement was minimal when compared to that of men. Naming a child was considered a great responsibility as the name giver did not just give a label that would be used to distinguish one child from another, but was shaping and moulding the identity of the newborn child with that of the community where the child was born.

24 used to distinguish one child from another, but was shaping and molding the identity of the newborn child with that of the community where the child was born.

Traditionally, men, like women, were assigned some responsibility in the homestead. They had the final word in the naming of the child, except among the Northern Sotho and the Venda where women were given the responsibility to name the child. Women’s passiveness in the naming of children was witnessed among the Zulu, the Xhosa and the Tsonga people to mention a few. The name giver was usually someone who was aware of various factors or conditions prevailing in the community or within the family in order to name the child appropriately. In traditional societies, most places were named by men, as men were the ones who were travelers and needed to identify the places they were travelling to. Nevertheless, there are some entities that were named by women.

Names, surnames and clan names have a gender element to them and that is because of the people that used them or how they are built or put together. Names are given to certain genders but others are unisex. In reference to amaXhosa in the olden days they used ‘No-’ to differentiate between a boy’s and a girl’s name, for example Nosiseko (female) and Siseko (male) and this is still evident in some societies. In African communities unisex names are given because they are thankful to God and the ancestors no matter the gender of the child. An example of this is my name, Sithembele (meaning trust) which is usually given to boys but since my parents wanted another boy they already had that name. They also wanted to link my name to my brother’s name whose name is Sithembiso (meaning wish), which is why it is also said amaXhosa do not name their children without justification. Unisex names are a new trend in the African society.

The reason certain names are given to a certain gender is because of how our societies are structured. The African society is one that is very strong in culture and every gender is expected to do certain things, that is why you would find that personal names of boys normally are expectations of what they should do as men, for example Vusumzi (build the home), Ntsikayomzi (Pillar of the home), Luxolo (peace). This is because in the African culture men are seen to be the protectors of the household, where they instruct peace, build their homes, following in the footsteps of their fathers.

This kind of mentality has changed in the new democracy, but not totally because woman have now been the strengths of their home doing what men are ‘supposedly’ to do. Therefore giving certain names to a certain gender does not mean that the person will follow the meaning of that name. Names should be unisex and children should be named not because of capabilities of a certain gender. However, because of the history of names and the number of people that have names of a certain gender, this cannot change completely, but only by parents naming their children with names of the other gender (boy’s name given to a girl and vice versa).

With surnames and clan names they are not specifically given to a certain gender because you do not choose these names yourself - you inherit them from your family. The only gender elements found in these names is that these names are said to be names of forefathers, with few or no feministic element found in them. This is then why I can say giving personal names according to gender helps to distinguish if the person is a boy or girl in most cases when you look at their names.

2.6 Givers and bearers It is interesting to note that during the colonial and missionary eras paternal and maternal grandparents played a leading role as name-givers of children. However, there is a strong belief that women were the most active participants in name giving. Alia (1989:22) supported this assertion by saying that “research on the naming traditions of many cultures … has revealed that women often control, [name-giving] even where they have few other powers”. Further, research reveals that women have fought unflinchingly for their right to participate in the process of naming. This fact confirms that women were not always in charge of the naming process, as Alia (1989) points out that “… women in many parts of the world have sought greater control over the right to name”.

The above assertion meant that women were not the most common name-givers, but increasingly were bestowed with this responsibility. Due to the migration labour system the role of men as decision maker’s in homes was diminished and women were elevated to home owners and sole caregivers, raising their children on their own. Women thus assumed the role of name givers. When the mother gave birth to a child, she would give the child a name designated as a birth name or forename. One may thus conclude that the naming process is nowadays open to any person irrespective of their family standing. Herbert (1992) is of the

26 viewpoint that the vast bulk of names are given by family members, especially parents and grandparents. Parents are the most common name-givers, followed by paternal grandparents and then maternal grandparents, especially the grandmother.

The name giver is anyone who gives a name to an entity. Regarding anthroponyms this includes parents, relatives, strangers, ministers, schoolteachers and self, however with regards to toponyms, name givers comprise residents, government departments, provincial governments, etc. Regarding anthroponyms, it is very rare to find people naming themselves at an early stage of their lives, nevertheless when people grow up they sometimes disregard the names they were given and assign themselves new names. The reason for the latter differs from person to person. In some instances, some people feel that the name they have been given by their parents is derogatory and as a result decide to rename themselves. Toponyms on the other hand, because of their nature, their existence is subject to the changing social or political factors.

In reference to Molefe (1999) I will continue to show how that name giving is not restricted to names that are given at birth, but also names that are given to a person when they have grown (e.g. nicknames). Therefore, I will further explain the giver and bearers in the sense of nicknames. In this regard young men and women all over the world and in different cultures give each other nicknames, based on appearance, actions, or circumstances. Nicknames both have a positive and a negative connotation, but from a young age up until adulthood a person bears that nickname and cannot stop others from calling them by that name.

Families are also name givers where parents name their last born nicknames like ‘nunuza’ (more like a description of their cuteness), children also nickname their parents depending on the way they behave. Fathers are mostly victims of this because they are more strict and are given nicknames to describe the way they are always shouting and giving orders around the house, for example Ngxolayo. Mothers and grandmothers are also given nicknames by the young ones to refrain from calling them by their names or say ‘mama’ or ‘makhulu’, therefore opting for nicknames like ‘Mamzo’ (mother), and ‘Magriza’ (grandmother).

However, this is not to say that the above names are only given to elders, they can also be given to youngsters. For example teenage young girls who have children can be nicknamed ‘Mamzo’ by their friends because they have reached motherhood and others ‘Magriza’ just

27 because they tend to act older than others or older than who they are. Therefore, nicknames are not given according to age only but by a person’s actions. There is a long list of givers of nicknames for example between Teachers and Pupils, Musicians, Authors, Individuals, Teachers, Soccer players and fan and the media. (Molefe, 1999)

Givers vary from individuals making nicknames for themselves, family members, school- mates, work colleagues to ordinary men in the street who may nickname even people they do not know. We can confidently assert that anybody is vulnerable to a nickname depending on how conducive the circumstances are. In summary in all these nicknames there is a giver, a bearer and a user.

2.7 Conclusion To the traditional African people, naming practices are very important since names are often given to mark the testimony of what a society holds dear in a given community. In other words, names bear testimony to the history and culture of a particular nation or people. Names are, therefore, chosen for their beneficial influence on the life and character of the bearer. Golele (1993: 85) mentions that names reflect the society or community in which they are found. With amaXhosa names we find that they differ to European names because they have meaning and symbolisation. These not only have meaning but they also symbolise gender because of the people they are given to and the names used to refer to them as well as the linguistic construction of such names.

Onomastics is there to keep and document the history behind every name given, so that its history can be known and understood and documented. In understanding Onomastics we are bound to understand proper names and distinguish them from common nouns. Names originate in different circumstances, which may be social, economic, political, or legal. And that is also with the case of Euro-western names and African names. Names have genders and are given by certain genders and all those givers play a role in name giving, whether at birth or when a person is older. It is important for us to know that there are name givers, bearers, and users.

In this chapter the context of name giving and naming has been provided with reference mainly to amaXhosa people. Differences in naming processes of Europeans and Africans has also been highlighted. This is done against the backdrop of political and social change from

28 the days of apartheid up until the new democratic dispensation of 1994 and thereafter. Issues of gender are also briefly touched upon, given the changes in gender relations and naming processes over time. While this chapter has been concerned with onomastics theory and a literature review, the chapter that follows provides the research methodology that was used to collect the data presented in this thesis.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN

3.1 Introduction Every research study is conducted within the scope of a particular method or methods. In order for the study to be completed successfully, a plan or method is required. Leedy (1993:137) defines method as: A way of accomplishing a result. It is how one operates, a way to get the job done.

There are various methods that researchers can employ when conducting research. These methods are chosen taking into account the nature of the investigation and the nature of data that needs to be analyzed.

3.2 Research Methods The research method is a strategy of enquiry, which moves from the underlying assumptions to research design, and data collection (Myers, 2009).The research methods include a positivist, a descriptive, a constructionist, and an interpretive method. The latter method was used in this study.

Terre-Blanche and Durrheim (1999:123) in defining the interpretive method state that: ...The interpretive method is characterised by a particular onthology, epistemology and methodology. Researchers working in this tradition assume that people’s subjective experiences are real and should be taken seriously (onthology), that we can understand others’ experiences by interacting with them and listening to what they tell us (epistemology), and those qualitative research techniques are best suited to this task.

The “triangulation method” was also preferred as best suited for this study. Van Maanen (1979:135) states that “Triangulation is best defined by Denzin (1978:291) as the combination of methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon.” Hammersley (1993:10) is of the opinion that: Qualitative methodology and quantitative methodology are not mutually exclusive. Differences between the two approaches are located in the overall form, focus and emphasis of the study.

In this study both the qualitative and the quantitative methods or techniques were used. Quantitative techniques are said to concentrate more on measurements and statistical analyses of variables instead of observations, interviews and fieldwork, often associated with qualitative research.

The reason why a triangulation methodology was used was that a statistical analysis of data was necessary to draw conclusions from some of the interview questions. However, “Interpretive research relies on first hand accounts ...” (Terre-Blanche and Durrheim 1999:124). It is for this reason that fieldwork was used as the main source of data collection. Shabalala (1999:10) states that “Field research takes place in a ‘field’ that is in a natural setting, a setting that is not established for the purpose of conducting research.”

Although there are other distinctions in the research modes, the most common classification of research methods is into qualitative and quantitative. At one level, qualitative and quantitative refer to distinctions about the nature of knowledge: how one understands the world and the ultimate purpose of the research. On another level of discourse, the terms refer to research methods, that is, the way in which data are collected and analysed, and the type of generalizations and representations derived from the data.

Both quantitative and qualitative research studies are conducted in education. Neither of these methods is intrinsically better than the other; the suitability of which needs to be decided by the context, purpose and nature of the research study in question; in fact, sometimes one can be an alternative to the other depending on the kind of study. Some researchers prefer to use a mixed methods approach by taking advantage of the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods, and combine these two methods for use in a single research project depending on the kind of study and its methodological foundation (Brysman & Burgess, 1999: 45).

An obvious basic distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is the form of data collection, analysis and presentation. While quantitative research presents statistical results represented by numerical or statistical data, qualitative research presents data as descriptive narration with words and attempts to understand phenomena in “natural settings”. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make

31 sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000: 3).

Stake (1995: 37) describes three major differences in qualitative and quantitative emphasis, noting a distinction between: explanation and understanding as the purpose of the inquiry; the personal and impersonal role of the researcher; and knowledge discovered and knowledge constructed. Another major difference between the two is that qualitative research is inductive and quantitative research is deductive. In qualitative research, a hypothesis is not needed to begin research. It employs inductive data analysis to provide a better understanding of the interaction of “mutually shaping influences” and to explicate the interacting realities and experiences of researcher and participant (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

It allows for a design to evolve rather than having a complete design in the beginning of the study because it is difficult if not impossible to predict the outcome of interactions due to the diverse perspectives and value systems of the researcher and participants, and their influence on the interpretation of reality and the outcome of the study. However, all quantitative research requires a hypothesis before research can begin.

In this research the hypothesis is that the use of surnames by amaXhosa South Africans has been widely accepted by the people using them. However, my hypothesis is that people have always wanted to understand the background and history of these names in order to understand the meaning behind these names. With this research therefore, it was important to go into the community to find out what was already known about these surnames and add more views and information to them. Not only will this information benefit the knowledge of amaXhosa, but it also will add more views to the onomastics field. With investigating these amaXhosa surnames, it was to understand the changes and the differences that occur within them.

To have an understanding of these changes, particularly in South Africa a researcher needs to interact and listen to people living in the country. These are the people who are in one way or the other affected by political and social factors that are prevailing, and who have changed or want to change their given names. In addition, this research used its methods to find the gender role in these surnames and the role the community has played in their formulation.

3.2.1 Qualitative Research Terre-Blanche and Durrheim make the point that qualitative research techniques are best suited to interpretive methodology. Sarakantos (1993: 46) defines a qualitative method as a ...naturalistic enquiry, which studies real world situations as they unfold. Qualitative method involves personal contact and insight, with the researcher getting close to the people, situation and phenomenon under study.

Qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena. Qualitative research is naturalistic; it attempts to study the everyday life of different groups of people and communities in their natural setting; it is particularly useful to study educational settings and processes. “Qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter; it attempts to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meaning people bring to them (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003: 23). According to Leedy (1993), if the data is verbal, the methodology is qualitative. He says further that the qualitative method is concerned with human beings: interpersonal relationships, personal values, meanings, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

According to Domegan and Fleming (2007: 24), “Qualitative research aims to explore and to discover issues about the problem on hand, because very little is known about the problem. There is usually uncertainty about dimensions and characteristics of problem. It uses ‘soft’ data and gets ‘rich’ data’”. According to Myers (2009), qualitative research is designed to help researchers understand people, and the social and cultural contexts within which they live. Such studies allow the complexities and differences of worlds-under-study to be explored and represented (Philip, 1998: 267).

In qualitative research, different knowledge claims, enquiry strategies, and data collection methods and analysis are employed (Creswell, 2003). Qualitative data sources include observation and participant observation (fieldwork), interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the researcher’s impressions and reactions (Myers, 2009). Data is derived from direct observation of behaviours, from interviews, from written opinions, or from public documents (Sprinthall, Schmutte, & Surois, 1991: 101). Written descriptions of people, events, opinions, attitudes and environments, or combinations of these can also be sources of data.

In qualitative studies, the researcher is considered the primary instrument of data collection and analysis. The researcher engages the situation, makes sense of the multiple interpretations, as multiple realities exist in any given context as both the researcher and the participants construct their own realities. She/he strives to collect data in a non-interfering manner, thus attempting to study real-world situations as they unfold naturally without predetermined constraints or conditions that control the study or its outcomes. According to Merriam (1998: 23), she/he engages the situation most often without an observation schedule, and plays a dynamic role in constructing an understanding of the research environment through self interpretation of what happens… thus, qualitative research produces a result which is “an interpretation by the researcher of others’ views filtered through his or her own.”

Maxwell (1998: 66) enumerates five research purposes for which qualitative studies are particularly useful:  Understanding the meaning that participants in a study give to the events, situations and actions that they are involved with; and of the accounts they give of their lives and experiences;  Understanding the particular context within which the participants act, and the influence this context has on their actions;  Identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences, and generating new, grounded theories about them;  Understanding the process by which events and actions take place; and  Developing causal explanations.

Merriam (1998: 11, 19) states that qualitative case studies in education are often framed with concepts, models and theories. An inductive method is then used to support or challenge theoretical assumptions. Although the research process in qualitative research is inductive, Merriam (ibid: 49) notes that most qualitative research inherently moulds or changes existing theory in that:  Data are analysed and interpreted in light of the concepts of a particular theoretical orientation;

 Findings are usually discussed in relation to existing knowledge (some of which is theory) with the aim of demonstrating how the present study has contributed to expanding the knowledge base.

However, Lincoln and Guba (1985: 290) caution that qualitative research, which is an approach that acknowledges the researcher’s subjectivity, requires that the “biases, motivations, interests or perspectives of the inquirer” are identified and made explicit throughout the study. Given below are some other disadvantages of qualitative research. These points are useful to the researcher such that he / she can try to minimise their effects during the course of the study.  Researcher bias can bias the design of a study.  Researcher bias can enter into data collection.  Sources or subjects may not all be equally credible.  Some subjects may be previously influenced and affect the outcome of the study.  Background information may be missing.  Study group may not be representative of the larger population.  Analysis of observations can be biased.  Any group that is studied is altered to some degree by the very presence of the researcher. Therefore, any data collected is somewhat skewed. (Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle)  It takes time to build trust with participants that facilitates full and honest self- representation. Short-term observational studies are at a particular disadvantage where trust building is concerned.

To sum this up, qualitative research is a systematic inquiry into the nature or qualities of complex social group behaviours by employing interpretive and naturalistic approaches. Qualitative study lends itself to thick narrative description of the group behaviours in the group’s natural environment. It attempts to be non-manipulative and takes into account the unperturbed views of the participants, as the purpose is generally to aim for objectivity. Qualitative research are most appropriate when the researcher wants to become more familiar with the phenomenon of interest, to achieve a deep understanding of how people think about a topic and to describe in great detail the perspectives of the research participants.

3.2.2 Quantitative Research Quantitative research methods were originally developed in the natural sciences to study natural phenomena. Quantitative research makes use of questionnaires, surveys and experiments to gather data that is revised and tabulated in numbers, which allows the data to be characterised by the use of statistical analysis (Hittleman & Simon, 1997: 31). Quantitative researchers measure variables on a sample of subjects and express the relationship between variables using effect statistics such as correlations, relative frequencies, or differences between means; their focus is to a large extent on the testing of theory.

Stainback and Stainback (1988: 317) list three basic purposes of quantitative research as to describe, to compare and to attribute causality. Gunderson (2000) defines quantitative research as “explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analysed using mathematically based methods”. Quantitative methods involve the processes of collecting, analysing, interpreting, and writing the results of a study (Creswell, 2014). Quantitative research methods are designed to produce statistically reliable data that tell us how many people do or think about something.

Aliaga and Gunderson (2000), describes what we mean by quantitative research methods very well: Quantitative research is ‘Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analysed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics)’.

Let us go through this definition step-by-step. The first element is explaining phenomena. This is a key element of all research, be it quantitative or qualitative. When we set out to do some research, we are always looking to explain something.

The specificity of quantitative research lies in the next part of the definition. In quantitative research, we collect numerical data. This is closely connected to the final part of the definition: analysis using mathematically based methods. In order to be able to use mathematically based methods, our data have to be in numerical form. Therefore, as quantitative research is essentially about collecting numerical data to explain a particular phenomenon, particular questions seem immediately suited to being answered using quantitative methods (Brysman and Burgess, 1999).

Many data that do not naturally appear in quantitative form can be collected in a quantitative way. We do this by designing research instruments aimed specifically at converting phenomena that do not naturally exist in quantitative form into quantitative data, which we can analyse statistically (Stakes, 1995). Examples of this are attitudes and beliefs. The last part of the definition refers to the use of mathematically based methods, in particular statistics, to analyse the data. This is what people usually think about when they think of quantitative research, and is often seen as the most important part of quantitative studies.

This is a bit of a misconception, as, while using the right data analysis tools obviously matters a great deal, using the right research design and data collection instruments is actually more crucial. The use of statistics to analyse the data is, however, the element that puts a lot of people off doing quantitative research, as the mathematics underlying the methods seems complicated and frightening (Stakes, 1995).

3.3 Research Design Research design can be thought of as the logic or master plan of a research that throws light on how the study is to be conducted. It shows how all of the major parts of the research study– the samples or groups, measures, treatments or programs, etc.– work together in an attempt to address the research questions. The research design can be seen as actualization of logic in a set of procedures that optimizes the validity of data for a given research problem. According to Mouton (1996: 175) the research design serves to “plan, structure and execute” the research to maximize the “validity of the findings”. It gives directions from the underlying philosophical assumptions to research design, and data collection. Yin (2003: 19) adds further that “colloquially a research design is an action plan for getting from here to there, where ‘here’ may be defined as the initial set of questions to be answered and ‘there’ is some set of (conclusions) answers.”

3.4 Data Collection methods and tools In this research, primary and secondary data have been used. According to Bless and Higson- Smith (1995), primary data constitutes the data collected by the researcher on their own and the secondary data refers to that collected by other researchers. Kothari (1985: 134) echoes Bless and Higson-Smith: The primary data are those, which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus happen to be the original in character. The secondary data, on the other

37 hand, are those which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the statistical process.

For the purpose of this research, interviews were used to collect data. Interviews are methods of gathering information through oral quiz using a set of preplanned core questions. According to Shneiderman and Plaisant (2005), interviews can be very productive since the interviewer can pursue specific issues of concern that may lead to focused and constructive suggestions. The main advantages of interview method of data collection are (Genise, 2002; Shneiderman & Plaisant, 2005) that: a) Direct contact with the users often leads to specific, constructive suggestions; b) They are good at obtaining detailed information; c) Few participants are needed to gather rich and detailed data but not all the time Depending on the need and design, interviews can be unstructured, structured, and semi- structured with individuals, or may be focus-group interviews.

In this research, semi-structured interviews were used as a source of collecting data tool at a Home Affairs office in Makhanda, where people seek new identity documents and so on. This method of interview has features of both structured and unstructured interviews and therefore use both closed and open questions. As a result, it has the advantage of both methods of interview. In order to be consistent with all participants, the interviewer has a set of pre-planned core questions for guidance such that the same areas are covered with each interviewee. As the interview progresses, the interviewee is given opportunity to elaborate or provide more relevant information if he/she opts to do so.

The main objective of conducting field research was to collect surnames of amaXhosa and to satisfy the research objectives by looking for answers to the research questions. (See Appendix 1 for interview questions). As indicated above, the interviews were conducted at Home Affairs in Grahamstown-Makhanda, Eastern Cape. The reason for using Home Affairs to collect data was because this institution is a protector, and a verifier of the identity and status of the citizens of South Africa, therefore many people of different ages always visit the institution for different reasons.

3.5 Sampling Sample in this research refers to the units of analysis, for example the research focused only on amaXhosa of South Africa and not on all Africans. The South Africans approached for the study were interviewed as individuals rather than a group. This is because the study was looking to see if some individuals understood the surnames they have and to garner their views about them, outside a collective of others. This study also did not choose which gender to approach and participate in the study, everyone was welcome to come and participate, therefore a distinction in the data analysis will be made between the genders in relation to whether mean or women had greater knowledge of the meaning of their respective surnames.

For the researcher to draw concrete conclusions on the target population her sample must be representative of the population that is being studied. A question that could be posed is what does ‘representative’ mean, i.e. how small or how big is the sample supposed to be? Providing an answer to this question, Terre-Blanche and Durrheim (1999) state: To achieve representativeness, researchers draw random samples. A second concern is the size of the sample, a very small random sample may be quite unrepresentative and the same is true for a large non-random sample.

Therefore the sample size of this study was a maximum of 80 participants, both males and females from the ages of 18-60. The sample needed to be large enough to reflect the country’s cultural diversity (not all amaXhosa who were interviewed grew up in Grahamstown-Makhanda) among interviewees and yet small enough to be manageable. Working with a large calculated sample can be unrepresentative, while working with a very large random sample can be both challenging and time consuming. The sample was analysed and conclusive conclusions were drawn when the data kept yielding the same results regardless of the increase in the number of interviewees.

3.6 Research Process The interviews were help during August 2019 at Home Affairs. Gatekeeper permission was sought from Home Affairs and granted after ethical clearance was given by Rhodes University. As the researcher, I put up posters at Home Affairs to help draw attention of people visiting Home Affairs and for them to get to understand what the research is about. I approached some participants and others came willingly. A table was set in the public eye to make sure the participants are comfortable and can look at their place in the que and even can

39 dismiss the interview if they are losing their place in the que. Those who participated were given a brief introduction to the research and what it is about and they were given a consent form, which still included a summary of the research, written both in English and isiXhosa.

Those who did not understand or read, as the researcher I took time to read out loud for them the consent form in the language they were comfortable in. After signing the consent form each participants was interviewed with a tape recorder and as the researcher I kept notes on the side to help analyze the data. The interviews took approximately 10 to 15 minutes (see Appendix 4 for sample interviews). The participants were allowed to not answer questions that they felt were uncomfortable for them and during the conducting of the interview, respondents were free to express their views even on topics, which were not included in the discussed areas or interview questions. Finally, it should be noted that the conversations flowed smoothly and pleasantly.

3.7 Challenges encountered when collecting data Conducting field research yields different results. No fieldwork is the same. Fieldwork poses its own challenges and excitement, as a given group of people respond in different ways to investigations being conducted. Although there are a number of books that give advice on conducting fieldwork, these books are based on a particular researcher’s experiences. Although the advice is of utmost importance, it bears noting that they may not always be used in every society and/or community as people behave differently towards a certain kind of investigation and towards the researcher.

Various things like the researcher’s gender, race, appearance, or whether the research is conducted in an urban or rural area affect the responses and the behaviour that the researcher may encounter when conducting research. A researcher should have some basic knowledge of the social dynamics of the place where the research would be conducted. Without the knowledge of a place, the researcher would not be able to accurately predict the reaction of the respondents to the needs and the objectives of the research. In relation to this research the researcher is based in Grahamstown-Makhanda and is well versed in the culture of the area.

In most instances researchers find themselves having to explain the objectives of the research and not collecting the data needed. Although it is important to outline the objectives of the research to respondents, this does not guarantee that they would complete questionnaires or

40 avail themselves for interviews. It does happen that after a lengthy explanation of the research and its objective, respondents do not see the need to participate. Some respondents refused to complete the questionnaires when it was clear that they would not get any financial reward.

In some instance, as I was collecting the data I was accused of working for the government and wanting to take people’s names to use them for government purposes. Regardless of the fact that people’s names are recorded in the national records at the Department of Home Affairs, some respondents refused to fill in questionnaires or allow themselves to be interviewed because they felt that their names were going to be sent all over the world. This was regardless of being informed that their names were only going to be used only for this research.

Various researchers including Neethling (2000), Koopman (1986), Shabalala (1999), Sumbwa (1997), Herbert and Bogatsu (1990), Thipa (1984), Moyo (1996), Asante (1996) and Turner (1992) among others, in various ways attest that names among African people are significant, profound, important and not given at random. Among some South Africans, however, a name is just a name and nothing more. It is for this reason that they find it not just odd but time wasting for someone to do research on names and naming patterns. These people, as a result do not want to respond to research questions because they fear that their names are going to be used for political and other reasons, and not for the research, because they are of the opinion that nothing could be done with a name. If such a situation arose then they could simply withdraw from the research.

3.7.1 The interview questions As straight forward as the questions were and even written in English and isiXhosa to help with understanding, some participants were unable to understand some of the questions, therefore opting not to answer them (see Appendix 3 for questions and Appendix 4 for sample interviews). For example question 8: ‘What do you think is the role of the community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming?’ some felt that this question was difficult and vague, therefore just giving any answer they thought fit for the question. I think as the researcher I also phrased the question in a manner that was confusing, instead the question could have been as follows: ‘In the formulation of surnames and names what is the role of the community?’

Another example was question was number 4: ‘What are you thoughts on ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa?’ Some participants were reluctant to answer this question because they did not want to have negative views about these surnames, therefore they gave safe answers to the question. During the interviews, some participants were not able to finish answering all the questions because they were scared to lose their place in the que but lucky enough they had answered most of the questions and some had answered all the questions. Some participants did not want to participate, not because of the nature of the research but because they had been waiting for a long time in the que, and were tired.

Another challenge during the interviews was that some participants were uncomfortable being recorded while talking, therefore as the researcher I had to write down all the information I was given. During the timeframe of collecting data on some days there were few people to interview and therefore I missed the target of interviews to be collected during a day and that caused the data collecting to fall behind.

3.7.2 Recording Research Recording research interviews is a great way to capture qualitative data for a thesis or dissertation research and ensures descriptive validity. While taking notes and writing down your observations is important, it is likely you are going to miss out on some details. An audio recording of an interview also allows you to refer back to the interview and take a fresh look at the interview data. These are some of the advantages of recording interviews in qualitative research. Tape recorders or recording devices such as a cellphone in my case, are crucial when collecting data. After collecting data using a tape recorder or cellphone, interviews should be transcribed in order to be able to analyse the data collected using the preferred method of data analysis. Transcribing tapes or recorded material however can be time consuming.

The challenges faced with the recording were that some of the interviewees’ voices were not audible enough and that was because of the space the interview was conducted in. Because of noise, on some days of the interview it made the other participants voices not audible enough. The only way as the researcher to trace what the person was saying was going through the notes I had been writing on the side. Another challenge I had encountered was that I was using a cellphone to record, therefore the phone deleted some interviews and I had to return

42 to Home Affairs to do more research. The recorded interviews have been stored in a safe drive.

3.8 Ethical considerations Silverman (2000: 201) reminds researchers that they should always remember that while they are doing their research, they are in actual fact entering the private spaces of their participants. Understandably, this raises several ethical issues that should be addressed during, and after the research had been conducted. Creswell (2003) states that the researcher has an obligation to respect the rights, needs, values and desires of the informants.

Miles and Huberman (1994) list several issues that researchers should consider when analyzing data. They caution researchers to be aware of these and other issues before, during, and after the research had been conducted. Some of the issues involve the following:  Informed consent (Do participants have full knowledge of what is involved?)  Harm and risk (Can the study hurt participants?)  Honesty and trust (Is the researcher being truthful in presenting data?)  Privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity (Will the study intrude too much into group behaviours?)  Intervention and advocacy (What should researchers do if participants display harmful or illegal behaviour?)

One of the normally unexpected concerns relating to ethical issues is the cultural sensitivity. Silverman (2000) argues that the relationship between the researcher and the subject during an interview needs to be considered in terms of the values of the researcher and cultural aspects. Therefore, appropriate steps should be taken to adhere to strict ethical guidelines in order to uphold participants’ privacy, confidentiality, dignity, rights, and anonymity. At all times in my research anonymity was upheld and this was explained to interviewees. Only their surnames would be used and no other details revealed.

For ethical reasons the study firstly was approved by the Rhodes University Ethics Board. Participants were fully informed regarding the objectives of the study, while they were reassured that their answers were treated as confidential and used only for academic purposes and only for the purposes of the particular research. Participants before they were interviewed were given consent forms which indicated the purpose, and nature of the research and giving

43 them options on what they agree to or do not agree to during the interviews. The consent forms were giving the interviewees a right to privacy of their names because the research did not need to use their names but only their surnames. Confidentiality and anonymity of the participants is important, hence their names were not asked during the interview. No participant during data collection was harmed or at risk both physically and psychologically.

Participants had a choice to give out their contact details, for feedback reasons. No one was forced to participate in the research and if one felt uncomfortable during the interview, as the researcher I allowed them to stop the interview if they wanted to do so.

3.9 Trustworthiness of the study Assessing the accuracy of qualitative findings is not easy. However, there are several possible strategies and criteria that can be used to enhance the trustworthiness of qualitative research findings. Trustworthiness, is the corresponding term used in qualitative research as a measure of the quality of research. Guba and Lincoln (1981), Krefting (1991) and Creswell (1998) suggest that “the trustworthiness of qualitative research can be established by using four strategies: credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability, and are constructed parallel to the analogous quantitative criteria of internal and external validity, reliability and neutrality. As the researcher, I use this term to cover all of the above.

Credibility in qualitative research is defined as the extent to which the data and data analysis are believable and trustworthy. In this case, the data that is analyzed in chapter 6, can be believable to other and others may take issue with the findings that I present. Research findings are transferable or generalisable only if they fit into new contexts outside the actual study context. Some of the research results were easy to generalize, and will allow the reader with sufficient information to be able to judge the applicability of the finding to other settings that they know.

Dependability is analogous to reliability, that is, the consistency of observing the same finding under similar circumstances. Reliability is problematic and is practically impossible, as human behaviour is not static, is contextual and changes continuously depending on various influencing factors. It is further compounded by the possibility of multiple interpretations of reality by the study subjects; a similar study with different subjects or in a

44 different institution with different organizational culture and context or by a different researcher may not necessarily yield the same results.

Confirmability is the degree to which the research findings can be confirmed or corroborated by others. In this case, I have stored all the interviews recorded after transcribing so that if the finding are challenged the information can be made available.

3.10 Conclusion Field research is a very interesting method of acquiring research information. Apart from gathering the data necessary for the study that a person is engaged in, a person learns various social dynamics of areas where the research is conducted. In this research, it was discovered that as much as the researcher has expectations of respondents, they also have various expectations from the researcher. As Shabalala (1999: 155) mentions: The success and failure of fieldwork depend largely on the local support of the community where the research is conducted. The researched are a major source of information without whom the research might be a failure.

Nevertheless, in this research and as a resident of Grahamstown-Makhanda it is believed that reliable data was obtained (see Appendix 1 for examples of surnames). In this chapter, the methodology that was used to collect data from interviewees who were visiting the Home Affairs Department has been outlined. In the chapter that follows the origins of amaXhosa surnames are explored.

CHAPTER 4: ORIGINS OF AMAXHOSA SURNAMES

4.1 Introduction It is important to realise and understand that surnames are not of African thought, but have been accepted and used even though they have been adopted and introduced by colonisers in Africa. Therefore, even though we try to understand the meanings and semantics of these surnames, it is important to trace the history that we have of where surnames originated. In this chapter, I will look into the history of surnames both in Europe and in Africa. I will also go into detail about amaXhosa surnames, their link to other names, cultures and gender references found in these surnames.

4.2 AmaXhosa Surnames While given names have been used from the most distant times to identify individuals, the advent of surnames is a relatively recent phenomenon. However, it is difficult to know the first and oldest surname. The origin of surnames cannot be traced, but many studies have said that they started being used by Chinese and Indian aristocracy since more than 3 millennia ago. The Chinese have been using family names (surnames) since around 2,800 BC (Mandende, 2009)

The trace of surnames differs in the different parts of the world and it is realised to be uncommon in the world’s history. In England, they date only from the 12th – 13th centuries. In Wales, they came much later and their presence in Ireland and parts of Scotland requires much different criteria from those used in England. Many in their genealogical search have found, for instance, that different branches of their family have come to spell their name differently, or that some members have changed the name entirely, or perhaps that an immigration officer or some other public official a century ago wrote down a wrong form which now has become the accepted one. Others have learned for the first time the original, literal meaning of their name.

IsiXhosa-speaking people are part of the Nguni family, which consists of the amaXhosa, amaZulu, amaNdebele and amaSwati. In the 17th century, the amaXhosa people were among the first Bantu groups to receive European settlers in Southern Africa, owing to the fact that they were living near the coast. The study conducted by Neethling (1996:55) concluded that having been exposed to the influence of Westernization in all its forms, the amaXhosa people

46 have been and still are in a state of ‘transition’. Their early and sustained contact with educators, traders and missionaries had a great impact on traditional naming practices, both the names of persons and those of geographical features. Old naming traditions were almost eradicated as European naming practices were adopted. Before a system for writing isiXhosa using the Latin alphabet was devised by Christian missionaries during the early 19th century, isiXhosa was only an oral language (Kropf, 1899).

Mandende (2009) points out that in preliterate societies, personal names amongst other language symbols were used as a means of documenting important events. Naming practices among isiXhosa-speaking people are important as they reflect how the people see the world around them, their cultural values and traditions of their daily experiences, and what they remember. For example, with naming amongst amaXhosa, the words have enormous potential symbolic power, names can be chosen to express or send messages. They can express a wish, hope or prayer, to resonate with the past and with selected national and selected religious groups, or simply to sound good (Bosch & De Klerk, 1995). According to Ngubane (2000:15), African names throw light upon the whole traditional culture and give a deeper understanding of the people and their way of life.

The elders were viewed as the custodians of culture and would use oral art such as proverbs and idioms to enforce culturally transmitted beliefs and values. As these elders were responsible for naming the children, they often chose a significant word or phrase within a proverb or idiom for a child’s name. The description of the meaning of the name would be referenced to the meaning of the appropriate proverb. Personal names taken from the oral sayings were therefore inseparable from the culture and the people’s belief system. If the name bearer lived up to the name, he/she was praised. The amaXhosa people were fond of saying, “Ulilandele igama lakhe,” meaning “He follows his name.” Therefore, following your name (ukulandela igama) was regarded as fulfilling destiny.

Ndimande (1998) argues that the formulation of surnames was not a random or arbitrary act but proper techniques were applied in formulating them, but there is no proof of this when it comes to amaXhosa surnames. Surnames are new to amaXhosa and have been accepted as part of their identity even though others do not know the meaning of those surnames. Surnames were used because of the expansion of the population, and there arose a need to differentiate between two people who shared names. It is said that people lived in small

47 groups in villages and knew each other and only used their first names or clan names. This is evident among amaXhosa also because they lived in rural areas and all they used to differentiate themselves was to use clan names, and this is also evident in other African cultures. For example, they were able to differentiate between Mzimkhulu waseMaTolweni and Mzimkhulu waseMatshaweni.

Surnames were said to mostly be used to describe an individual and were not tied to an entire family and passed down from generation to generation. An example would be that of an isiXhosa surname like, Mnyamana (meaning the black one). These descriptions became permanent enough to attach to a family rather than to an individual. For many Africans, their surnames are non-African and this may be largely due to slavery and colonial administration. Therefore, the concept of surnames was European originated or at least it was not native African tradition. Africans did not have two names, but identified themselves by tribe, by subgroups or by clans.

Ingram (1953) defines a surname as “an alter name, a family name”. Junord (1912) argues that surnames are actually sir-names, meaning they represent male names and are patrilineal. Looking at amaXhosa culture and most African societies this is evident, because children inherit the father’s surname and clan name. Therefore, it can be argued that surnames from African people were taken from the personal names of their ancestors. Some are from praise names, for example in isiZulu and other languages they call surnames, isibongo (isiZulu), seboko (SeTswana), shibongo, xivongo (XiTsonga), etc.

AmaXhosa surnames are not referred to as isibongo, but as “ifani”. The word ifani is derived from an Afrikaans term ‘van’ (Neethling, 1996). Because of amaXhosa’s contact with the Afrikaans way of life, they ended up adopting not just the lifestyle, but also words from the Afrikaans vocabulary (Fuze, 1979). This is evident because some amaXhosa surnames are Afrikaans, for example Donkrag, Swartbooi, Grootboom etc. This is also linked to apartheid when it was seen as advantageous to have such a surname, because of the permit system especially in the Western Cape.

Machaba (2004), also argues that Euro-western surnames should not be confused with Christian names especially those that are seen among the amaXhosa people, for example Speelman, Stuurman, Brown, Grootboom, etc. These are not Christian names, but names

48 people acquired from their employers or their parents employers (Machaba, 2004). These names may be given to them because of a skill they acquired or their appearance. Some of these names started as being names and nicknames to the amaXhosa people and some of them never knew what they meant, but took them as part of their identity and when there was an onomastic shift these names became their second names (surnames). Also because of onomastic shift, names have changed since democracy and many western names have been dropped or not used at all.

Surnames became more important during the apartheid time and that particular government enforced the use of surnames on indigenous people. Some Africans never chose their surnames but were given surnames by their employers or their father’s employers, named after their fathers, taken from their nicknames; for example Swaartbooi (meaning black boy). An argument can be built from this, that some amaXhosa surnames are racist because at the time amaXhosa people acquired surnames, this was during apartheid. Many surnames in South Africa owe a root to a patronymic system, because male names dominated the acquisition of surnames among indigenous people in South Africa.

Neethling (1996) says there are viewpoints pertaining to the global origin of surnames. However, for amaXhosa some surnames are from their clan names. Indigenous people had clan names, which now somehow equated with surnames (Machaba, 2004). This means that these were not their surnames but they clans that they belonged to as part of their identity. However, not all surnames (in South Africa) are attributed to clans. Machaba (2004) argues that some amaXhosa surnames may have originated from patronyms. A pratronym is a name derived from the name of a father or ancestor.

Neethling (1996), gives four categories from where amaXhosa surnames originated: ancestor names, locality surnames, occupation names and nicknames. When it comes to occupation, Nicolaisen (1976), is of the opinion that people adopted surnames from their occupation, but it is debatable that African people adopted this trend, for example Baker or Smith. However, Neethling’s argument can convince us that these surnames, Nobhala, Mfundisi, Gqirhana, Jaji etc, in fact originated because of people’s occupations and not from being personal names given to various individuals. It can also be argued that these surnames may have originated as aspirations of parents as to what they wished their children to become in life.

4.3 Link between amaXhosa surnames and other names 4.3.1 Patronymics Nothing is more common in the rise of surnames than to come upon a name which indicates whose son a man is and who fathered him. Patronymics are more evident in European surnames, because when we come to the ordinary English usage, the easiest form of identification purpose is the simple ‘son of’, usually in the form of Johnson, Jackson, Williamson, etc. Not to say that amaXhosa surnames are not names of forefathers but in European surnames the ‘son,’ in surnames appear more often than surnames of amaXhosa, and this is because surnames of amaXhosa have a common noun structure (e.g. nyana kaGqubule – son of Gqubule vs Son of John-Johnson).

It must be said in regard to the patronymic naming convention that if your family name does not end in ‘son’ or ‘sen’ that it is not of patronymic origin. This is simply not the case. Most names have been misspelled and mispronounced over the centuries dropping many of these endings for more abbreviated versions so that many names are impossible to determine their root origins anymore. The root origin (35%) of our family names, however, originate with the patronymic naming convention.

AmaXhosa surnames are more a link of personal names than ‘son of’ which is used in patronymic surnames. A large number of names now used as surnames are simply names which have been passed down, not any form such as ‘son of’, for example Richardson- Richards. Patronymics naming conventions came into play whereby sons were named after their father’s, and sometimes even after their mothers. Even though we might not often see the feministic side in these surnames, there are some, which were taken from names of women. These surnames come from names of women who were famous and not married, for example Allis-Allison.

Within amaXhosa surnames that are not of European origin we see the prefix ‘no’, but still that does not mean that those surnames are names from women because even men in the olden days had the prefix ‘no’ in their names. Surnames come from the father’s name, either in straight patronymic, or in the form of a Christian name, which may have come down the ages unchanged, or strangely transformed so that without special study it is impossible to recognise its percentage.

Christian names have given birth so many cases to surnames, obviously the meaning of Christian names is important. The habit of using Christian names as surnames arose after the reformation and may well have had something to do with the desire to weld estates together through family alliances. Through the colonial system, Europeans made laws that would govern everybody they vanquished. These laws were based on the ideologies and philosophy of the Europeans. When they designed official documents, they were designed to cater for Europeans, i.e. the inclusion of a term or Christian name in the official documents that was made deliberately to force Africans to acquire the so-called European/Christian names. There were many reasons advanced why Africans should be bestowed with European/Christian personal names; either on the grounds that their names were “complicated”, “foreign” or “heathen”, or to show that they were colonized. Hence the existence of so many European personal names among Africans (Moyo, 1997:8).

4.3.2 Nicknames There is no doubt that some amaXhosa surnames are derived from nicknames, if the nickname was pejorative in character, the descendants would surely have tried to shake it off. This is not easy, as anyone who has ever had the misfortune to acquire an unpleasant nickname can testify. It is estimated that approximately 10% of our Family Names come from nicknames. As with today, people who lived in a small villages in the olden days knew everyone in their small settlements and they too joked and gossiped about each other. Nicknames were easy to invent, for everyone knew a great deal about each other’s personality and physical characteristics.

Nicknaming, is a post-naming process. A nickname is by no means an official name. This does not mean though that a nickname cannot change status. In a few cases nicknames lose their informal status and end up in identity books. The World Book Encyclopaedia (1982:8) says that nicknames “... may be either descriptive terms or pet names. Descriptive terms ... usually express a person’s prominent characteristics.” We have seen nicknames that come from English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Hebrew, etc. There are even those nicknames that mix languages in one nickname. Language is such a dynamic tool in making nicknames, it does not matter whether it is the giver’s mother-tongue or not.

Examples would be a person with a large head who might be called ‘Ntloko’, or someone with a small nose ‘Mpumlwana’. A thin person was nicknamed ‘Mathambo’ (literally,

51 bones). A rich person might have been called ‘Sityebi’ (literally, fat one). Some of these nicknames were negative and some came from positive opinions about those who acquired them. Personal appearance nicknames were popular in the olden days, the recipient being easily identifiable from amongst his or her family members or gatherings of people of the place they live in. Sources for nicknames included: unusual size or shape of the body, bald heads, facial differences, deformities, and comparisons with birds (Molefe, 1999).

Nicknames were also used to differentiate or compare people: whether they were fat or thin, tall or short, dark or light skin, young or old. Some of these nicknames after a while lost their unpleasant meaning and became obscure, so that the bearers were pleased with the terms, but unfortunately few nicknames are pleasant or kindly, since they would not be bestowed if people had consideration for the feelings of others, or were not addicted to sarcasm.

Some of these surnames that changed from nicknames still have a negative connotation to amaXhosa, for example the surname Mnyamana which means ‘small black boy’. This surname could be interpreted as being racist because surnames were given during colonial/ apartheid time, therefore questioning the reasoning behind such surnames. Nicknames were only used as descriptions back then and were not meant to be surnames, but unfortunately bearers where unable to shake them off in small rural communities, they were passed down in the family, and over generations the descendants acquired very different characteristics from those which their predecessors had possessed.

4.3.3 Occupation We also often identify people by mentioning their occupations. We say “the dry cleaner”, “the mailman”, “the preacher”, or “the plumber”. Our ancestors were no different and also identified persons by their occupations. It is estimated that 15% of our Family Names come from occupations. Occupational names are of interest and variety. They also differed depending upon their gender origins. Some female workers in the Middle Ages often had occupational names that were slightly different from male workers who did the same kind of work (Hutchison, 2012)

No occupation escaped the naming convention development. Many surnames come from occupations once practiced by an ancestor. It often happened in the past days that for several generations the son proceeded the father in a craft, and so it was natural for a family to

52 acquire a name from the occupation, which had been their livelihood. There is also a believe (which may be true or not) with European surnames that some were adopted by amaXhosa from the white families they worked for.

Some occupational surnames were once nicknames because of the qualities the person had, or faults, or how the person was skilled more than other workers. Most occupational surnames that amaXhosa have stem from nicknames that were given to children as their parent’s wishes for them to be successful, for example Jaji ‘Judge’. Some acquired those surnames because of their parent’s jobs, for example Nobhala ‘one who writes or secretary’. I think this practice may well account for the widespread existence of some otherwise aristocratic surnames.

The reason why we cannot see a feministic side to amaXhosa surnames is because of many occupational surnames and other types. This is because in the olden days women were not allowed to go to work or rather let us say every gender at the time knew their roles. Men went to work on farms or in factories, while women were expected to stay at home to cook, take care of children and look after the households. Therefore, that is why these occupational surnames stem from names of fathers.

The reason some of these occupational names were accepted was to gain acceptance from the white man and trying to elevate themselves in the workplace. This is the reason why when amaXhosa woman started working (also men) they adopted second names, which were English and some still used these names up until this day. This also gave rise to a new pattern of naming where amaXhosa were giving their children second names. The reason behind this was because colonisers/the apartheid system were unable to pronounce their first names. An example of this is Mandela, where he was given the name Nelson on his first day of school because his teacher could not pronounce the name Rolihlahla (Record, 1994).

4.3.4 Place names The largest root origin of our family names is by way of address or place names (40%). When surnames began to be adopted generally in England it was very natural for the pace of a man’s birth or principal residence to be given to him as the distinguishing mark. Many names were at first simply ‘of’ such and such a place have been joined to the first name and thus are now looked upon as a surname. People of the olden days were keen observers of the geography where they lived. Any outdoor feature was often a special kind of landmark.

Neighbours were usually identified by a hill, rock, well, swamp, building, or even a ditch near the place where the neighbour lived. Such an address reference also became a second name for the neighbour. In tracing one’s surname, then, you can take it that there is no place, however obscure in this country which has not given its name to some person or persons, some family or tribe. Anyone who possesses a name, which can be identified with a place, one can be sure that one is half way to an explanation of the meaning of his surname (Hutchison, 2012).

The reason behind place names being surnames is because people were identified by the places they lived in to differentiate them because they had the first names, for example Zola waseMonti - Zola Monti ‘Zola from East London’. From local names, and from patronymics, have come a huge quantity of our names. Even place names then are in the origin names of people, just like street names.

4.3.5 Clan Names Dynamics through which an individual is recognised as a member of a group are a critical part of the mechanism to defining the identity of a person (Montinaro, 2016). Montinaro (2016), defines clans as a group of households reporting a shared ancestry, and it refers to an intermediate level distributed between lineages within the hierarchical structuring of a given society. Clan membership is agnatic like that of the amaXhosa, and is determined by the principles of patrilineal descent-meaning clan names passed exclusively through the male line and is infringed upon in the case of illegitimacy.

AmaXhosa have different clan names and they are more important to amaXhosa than surnames. By the clan praises one gets to understand their clan history, and what their ancestors were called. Asking one of their clan name is a sense of respect and when you praise one you do not show respect to that person only but to their ancestors. Unlike surnames that you can change when you get married a Xhosa woman, your clan name does not change because clan names are not adopted like surnames. People with the same clan name in the amaXhosa culture might not know each other or live in the same place, but they automatically become related even though their surnames might be different.

Therefore, this forms the roots of ‘ubuntu’ (togetherness) - a behaviour synonymous to Africans as extending a helping hand to a complete stranger when in need. What follows are a few clan names and their praise names:  AmaNgqosini (Noinga, Thithiba, Ndoko, Thikoloshe)  AmaTshawe (Mdange, Tshiwo)  AmaVundle (Ubhayi, kaKhetshe, Inyoke’emnyama eyacandisiba, uMevamhlophe aseCamsholo, uGwaca, uMsuthu)  Amanywabe (Oomamali, Gatyeni, Ndondela, Nkome’ ezibombovu).

The above are my clan names and their praise names. These clan names are scattered all over the amaXhosa clan but they do not all share the same surname. As I have mentioned above the clans matter most to the amaXhosa identity (more than names and surnames), and are transferred from one to the other through oral tradition. Knowing your ‘isiduko’ or clan praises is vital to the amaXhosa and it is considered a shame and ‘uburhanuka’ (lack of identity) if one does not know one’s clan and associated praises.

It has been said that most surnames from African cultures are from clan names, but this is not the case with amaXhosa surnames. This is because surnames of amaXhosa are more common nouns than praise names. The only praise names amongst amaXhosa surnames are those from nicknames and personal names, for exampl Mthimkhulu ‘big tree’. Surnames that are derived from clan names are more common amongst amaZulu and Vatsonga etc. From these cultures it is much easier to identify ones clan from their surname and also the history of that clan and reason for using that surname, and also why two different people can have different surnames and one clan name. It can also be argued that amaXhosa would not have European surnames amongst their surnames if clan names and their praises were used as surnames.

Using clan names as surnames would enrich young people to know the history behind their surnames and learn more about their clan names and where they come from. Not to say they do not know their background of surnames, but using clan names as surnames would be a way of explaining the history of amaXhosa.

4.4 Symbol of colonialism and apartheid History has played a vital role in shaping and reshaping South Africa to be what it is today. It is this history that some Africans in South Africa find hard to break away from regardless of various initiatives by the government and private sectors to unify South Africans. Some Africans in South Africa, affected by the country’s history, have found it hard to forgive, forget and move on and as a result still show hatred towards not just Euro-western people but Euro-western names. Many people have expressed their hatred towards English/Western names and surnames because they somehow do not describe who they are and where they come from. People have voiced out comments of the names being not African and removing them is part of the decolonisation process that our country needs for African people in general and South Africans. It should be pointed out that history cannot be undone, however painful the scars it left may be. However, people could learn from their history and start to build a future they would be proud of for their children.

Euro-western names in South Africa came with the Europeans who came to the country. Before the arrival of Euro-western people, Euro-western names were unheard of in South Africa. The Europeans did not only bring Euro-western names, but brought with them various laws with the main aim of discriminating against the indigenous people of the country. These laws limited the indigenous people and in some cases ensured that they were always servants and not masters. Education of the indigenous child was tailored in such a way that they never excelled above the standards set by the tailors of the education system. It was for this reason that Euro-western children received better education than that of Africans.

The land was distributed according to the laws that came with Europeans that made sure that vast amounts of land were given to Europeans and indigenous people had little land. It is for these reasons, among others, that some South Africans resent Euro-western names. Some people regard these names as colonial names, and identity based on oppression, therefore changing them or disregarding them is to say they are not conformists. Many have changed these names and including surnames because they carry the colonial baggage. While some people do not like European names because of their meaning or because they do not reflect their culture and origin, others despise these names because as name bearers they have no relationship with the person who gave them the European name.

In various societies, members of the family, community or strangers who participated in the birth of the child give names. It is a belief in many African societies that a name giver moulds the character of the person on whom the name is bestowed. It is for this reason that name givers in most African societies are carefully chosen. Most people are named when they are young, and at a later stage in life, however, a person may name or rename themselves. In South Africa, strangers, for example people who worked at the then Bantu Administration Departments, named various people. Some people discarded their Euro-western names because they got them from South African Home Affairs and did not know their meanings, but because of the time they lived in, a person was given an English name, solely because African names were difficult to pronounce for the Europeans as indicated above.

4.5 Reasons for changing or not changing Euro-western names There are many costs that are linked with changing a name, and therefore the majority of people did not want to discard their Euro-western names. Apart from financial costs, emotional instability may also surface. It may be that changing a name that they are used to and have been addressed by for a number of years, would cause confusion for people who know them by the old name. If one changes their name that would mean they have to change all their documents, and so others saw that as a process and even this present day, I think that is the reason why people are still stuck with these names and surnames. As a result, some people have resorted to insisting that they be addressed by their African names instead of their Euro-western names. Although in such cases Euro-western names are not used, they are still reflected in the people’s official documents.

The reason why some Africans cherish Euro-western names is because to them, these names have various associative meanings. Although the lexical meaning of the name might not be known by the name giver and/or the name bearer, associative meaning plays a vital role in fostering a relationship between a child and the name given to her. Others do not change these names because of sentimental meanings to them, for example some were given names on special days, like Good Friday and when they were baptised. It can be seen from the latter examples that names in some cases do shape the behaviour and the way people view themselves. Therefore, changing these names would be disrespect to the givers of those names, and those that are changed are because they do not even know how they got those names and what they mean. There are however examples of clan names such as the amaIrish and the amaCaine who are very proud of their European ancestry as they identify with those

57 ancestors that came from Europe and were shipwrecked on the Wild Coast of the old Transkei, marrying into group such as the amaMpondo (Hayward, 2019.

In some instances names are given to infants because in each generation in the family, at least one person should have a particular name. For example, if a great grandmother of a particular family was named Christine, the name is given to at least one female child in the family to ensure that it is carried over from generation to generation. Regardless of the changing naming patterns in a particular community or the attitudes of younger generations towards certain names, the name is still used.

This is sometimes referred to as name sharing or namesake. Another reason why an existing name in the family or community is given to an individual is to foster the qualities of the initial name bearer in the child. People who possess these names honour them not because of their cultural origin but because of linking them with the initial name bearer. In some instances, people who have namesakes honour these names and try and walk in the footsteps of the initial name bearer (Mandende, 2009).

Whether living or dead, name givers play an important role in the lives of some Africans and as a result the names they give are honoured and respected by the name bearers. Some opinions are that Euro-western names reflect our country. South Africa is a culturally diverse country. This diversity is reflected in people’s names among other things. Although some people would like African names to be dominant in South Africa, it is a fact that cannot be disputed that South Africa is not for black Africans only. It accommodates various people including Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Europeans, etc. It is for this reason that some people feel that Euro-western names are important in South Africa as they reflect the diverse cultural backgrounds that are found in South Africa.

Though surprising, it should be noted that some people nowadays still feel that Euro-western names are important because people should have them if they seek employment. While to some people names are profound and significant as they have meaning and reflect their qualities, culture and characteristics, to others names are just names and nothing more. It is for this reason that they do not see the need to change their names.

While Euro-western names are appealing and meaningful to some respondents, to others these names are meaningless and are a symbol of colonialism, oppression and apartheid. As discussed above, there has been a change in the naming patterns among South Africans. Though this change was evident even in the seventies, recently it has escalated when compared to the period before the demise of apartheid. Although the primary function of various Euro-western names possessed by Africans in South Africans was to distinguish one person from the other, these names also served to instil a new culture of dominance by Euro-western people among Africans

4.6 European surnames used by amaXhosa In a paper (Johnson, 2019, presented at the ALASA Conference title ‘Johnson ‘MaGaba’ The Foreigner’, which forms part of the research for this thesis I looked into European surnames used by amaXhosa. The paper sought to investigate the origins of surnames of amaXhosa that are of European ancestry and it is included here as empirical data. These surnames are mostly among others of English and Afrikaans origin. There is a notion amongst people that when you have a European surname your ancestors were European, but that is not always the case. Previous studies accessed do not give any evidence of the trace of the origin of these Eurocentric surnames of amaXhosa, except with the clan names mentioned above.

Using iziduko (clan names) as a point of departure as the researcher I looked at how surnames from selected data from published isiXhosa literature books and newspaper are linked up by iziduko. How these surnames are connected by iziduko receives close scrutiny in the study. There was discussion with colleagues and families known to me as the researcher. The investigation focused on both the language of origin and the semantics of the surname. The geographic location of the families with European surnames is also of great interest to this study as it is likely to offer socio-political reasons for the naming.

Unlike amaXhosa surnames, European surnames do not have meaning to amaXhosa because they cannot link them to their history as indicated in chapter 1, and for that reason European surnames cannot be explained by those who have them, but with the help of dictionaries and the internet they have tried to trace what these surnames mean in their original languages. It is very difficult to carry a name and not know its origin because as said above the names we carry are part of our identity and therefore like other amaXhosa names it is important to know

59 their origins and meanings and how they were adopted by Africans (especially South African amaXhosa people).

The usage of surnames depends on where you are and the location tells us more about the history of the surname. Below are some popular European surnames used by amaXhosa, some of them are said to have an English root and others, an Afrikaans origin. I have also given examples of amaXhosa surnames that were once European, but which have become xhosalised (transphologised).

Some European Surnames with an English root (Bardsley, 1901, Lowe 1960) Johnson (Mfene) This is a patronymic from the personal name John. It was first found in Lincolnshire and means ‘son of John’ (gift of God). Johnson is derived from the Latin word Johannes (which is another European surname used by amaXhosa), which is derived from the Hebrew word Yohanan meaning ‘Jehovah has favoured’. The suffix meaning ‘son’ creates several different variations of the Johnson surname, e.g. English (son), Swedish (sson), German (sohn), etc. Jones is the common welsh version of this surname. Johnson was a very popular name among Christians, given the many saints named John, including St John the Baptist and St John the evangelist.

James (Mampinga) This surname has its origins in the bible. Its ancient root in the Old Testament is the name Jacob, although today James is seen as a separate and distinct name in its own right. This surname also comes from the personal name James, which appears in the New Testament in the form of two of Christ’s disciples, James the brother of John and James the brother of Andrew. The surname of James has an English origin but that is misleading. Although James appears all over the British Isles, its main concentration is in South Wales. Welsh people would claim the James surname as their own, and they would appear to have a strong historical case for that claim.

George (Mpiga) This surname is of German origin, meaning ‘son of George’. It is derived from the Greek word ‘ge ergon’, literally meaning ‘tiller of the soil’ or ‘farmer’. Surnames is popular in Irish, English, and Welsh.

Williams (Mamtipa) This Welsh patronymic last name has several possible origins - Son or descendant of Guillemin, a pet form of Guillaume, the French form of William - From the Belgic guild-helm, meaning ‘harnessed with a gilded helmet’ or welhelm ‘the shield or defence of many’. - Derived from the given name ‘William’ an old French given name with Germanic elements - Wil- desire and will and helm- helmet protection In Wales adding an ‘s’ to the end of the surnames denotes ‘son of’ pointing to Wales as the origin of many people with the Williams surname. This surname is popular in countries such as England, Scotland and Germany and is ranked third popular in United States, Great Britain and Australia.

Jack (Tshawe) A medieval English origin surname, and it is formed from either one or two male given names, Jacob or John. It came from the French name ‘Jacques’ (meaning James) and it is a form of the Latin name Jacobus. It was first found in Renfreshire – a historic country of Scotland. This surname is seen as the synonym of John. During the Middle Ages it was very common, and it became a slang word meaning ‘man’.

Some European Surnames with an Afrikaans root (Hank & Flavia 1988, Lowe 1960) Blom (MaMbamba) This surname was first found in Derbyshire where the name is a metonymic occupational name for an iron worker from the Middle English ‘blome’ meaning an ingot of iron. The name was derived from ‘the bloomer’ a worker at a bloomer or bloom-smithy. A ‘bloom’ is a mass of iron that has gone a second time through the fire. Bloomer was a person employed in the manufacture iron. In Swedish the word means flower and also from the Afrikaans language, but the English surname has no connection with flowers. Jewish Blooms have made their mark in South Africa.

Stuurmaan (MaMnune) This surname is used as a family name or surname in Netherlands languages. It is said to have originated in South Africa and is found 6 times in 2 different countries (USA and South Africa). It Afrikaans meaning is steersman - a person who is steering a boat or a ship.

Swaartbooi (Mnywabe) Popular family name mostly used in South Africa, while Namibia is ahead in terms of density. This surname is a Dutch and English nickname for a dark-haired or dark-skinned person, from the Middle Dutch zwart, swert, and Middle English swart ‘dark’, swarthy. The top three jobs for the swaart ancestors were farmers, labourers and carpenters. The Afrikaans translation would be ‘black boy’, which can be found as racist to be used by a black person.

Speelman (Tshawe) This surname is said to be a Dutch occupational surname. It means a (historical) musician, but in the past was used for performing artist with other skills. Its translation to English is Fiddler- a person who plays the violin, especially one who plays folk music.

Neethling (1996), points out that some surnames from amaXhosa people were transphologised into isiXhosa from Afrikaans. For example, De kork- Dikoko, Verwoerd – Velevutha, Joubert- Dyubhele, etc. This might be because amaXhosa people during apartheid or before apartheid could not pronounce nor write other languages. Therefore, they called them the way they heard them. IsiXhosa has many borrowed words that are transphologised words from other languages. These surnames deviated from normal spelling and Neethling (2005) is of the opinion that these names were bestowed from nicknames, names of farmers or missionaries.

De Klerk (2002) suggests that there is ambiguity of intent: there is sound-play on the one hand which could be considered as light-hearted and friendly, but at times also reflecting phonetic liberties, suggesting a lack of effort ‘to get it right’. The reason for these surnames to deviate from normal spelling was because amaXhosa back then were unable to pronounce some English words, so they called them as they heard them. However, with colonizers if they could not pronounce an isiXhosa word or name they changed it. An example of this is the poem by My Name - by Magoleng wa Selepe. The poet takes aim at the procedure during the dark days of Apartheid, but the reality of political power without economic power has left

62 many non-white South Africans in the continued position of adopting the slavery name as a prospect to gain economic opportunity.

My Name- by Magoleng wa Selepe Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa Look what they have done to my name… the wonderful name of my great-great-grandmother Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa The burly bureaucrat was surprised What he heard was music to his ears ‘Wat is daai, se nou weer?’ ‘I am from Chief Daluxo Velayigodle of emalu podweni And my name is Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa.’ Messia, help me! My name is simple And yet so meaningful But to this man it is trash... He gives me a name Convenient enough to answer his whim... I end up being Maria… I………….. Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa

What I had found about these surnames is that they are patrilineal and they have no link to iziduko. The only similarity between the two is that they are both names of ancestors (patrilineal) but the ancestral root is different, European surnames their ancestral line is of European origin and even those that originated in South Africa they are not from Africa. Iziduko’s ancestral line is of amaXhosa. The above examples are not a call for decolonisation of these surnames, but to find meaning in the names people carry, so that they can identify with them with understanding. As much as there has not been a call to change these surnames, however the convention of carrying an English surname alongside an amaXhosa name, is still firmly entrenched and is only likely to change in future as it dawns on name

63 givers that English surnames could be interpreted as a symbol of colonial oppression and even apartheid.

Neethling (2005) is of the same opinion when he states that, “identities change and as the broader and diverse South Africa society buckles under relentless pressure of globalisation, often manifested by the dominance of English, it is clear that naming is in the crossfire, and only time will tell as to the final outcome”. This is because some of these surnames, for example Swaartbooi, have a racism element to them. Therefore, if there has not been a call to change these surnames, then it might happen in the future, because for example now geographical locations are changing and given new names, from the ones that carry the a history of oppression, for example Grahamstown to Makhanda. For now, knowing the meaning and history of these surnames helps us accept a multicultural identity in a multilingual and democratic South Africa.

The Europeans regarded everything that is African as inferior and made Africans acknowledge that their culture and traditions were indeed inferior to European cultural and traditional systems. Europeans felt that Africans needed to change and follow their systems. This change was made deliberately in the name of colonialism and slavery. Africans were regarded as slaves in the country of their birth. For example, African people who wanted to attend a Western church and school, get a job, or apply for an identity document, were forced to have European names, and they abandoned their African personal names that attached them to their cultural standards against theirs (Machaba, 2004).

Mbeki (1998) summarizes the European’s motives in this way: In the end, they wanted us to despise ourselves, convinced that, if we were not sub- human, we were, at least, not equal to the colonial master and mistress and were incapable of original thought and the African creativity which has endowed the world with an extraordinary treasure of masterpieces in architecture and the fine arts.

4.7 Gender in amaXhosa surnames Surnames in general, including that of amaXhosa are believed to be names of fathers ‘sir- names’, and few names of women appear in these surnames. This raises a question of patriarchy because both Western and African cultures seem to be deeply influenced by the idea of the supremacy of the fathers, since patriarchy is irrevocably part of both Eurocentric

64 and Afrocentric cultures in South Africa (Van der Walt, 1994:160). Not only surnames have this patriarchal root but also clan names.

The way these names are patriarchal is also seen in how these names are passed on, most amaXhosa people adopted their father’s surname, in cases where the parents are married or Intlawulo is paid (in certain regions of amaXhosa). Even if they adopt their mother’s surnames there is a great chance that surname belongs to their grandfather, still having a patriarchal root. The ‘ideology of patriarchy’ therefore seems to have developed as a result of the elevation of ‘the idea of the leadership of the fathers’, to a position of paramount importance in society.

This ideal was, however, absolutised (idolised) when it was promoted to the position of a hypernorm (Visagie & Pretorius, 1993:54). This means the idea of the father leading and protecting the close circle of the family, was extended to other spheres of society, and thus dominated all other forms of social intercourse. The norm according to which the father headed the household, now regulated all other man-woman relationships in society. It is important to note that the original ideal was not based upon the premise that women were inferior, but most probably upon a loving relationship in the family circle where the husband protected and guided the mother, with her support (Van de Walt, 1994).

However, as a result of the elevation of this ideal to acquire hyper-normative status, women were regarded as inferior to men (Visagie & Pretorius, 1993:54). An uneven power- relationship developed through which the male sex obtained supremacy over women, resulting in their subordination to men throughout society. Van de Walt (1994) is of the opinion that, the ideal of the ‘supremacy of the fathers’ thus gained hyper-power through which this relation of domination was kept intact.

Patriarchal ideals are not only rooted in how men treat women but also in how society treats women. For example with naming in general, women were once and still are given names that do not have expectations like men, for example Melikhaya ‘supporter of the home’. Some only adopt or are given these names when they get married because they are now seen as pillars of those households, for example Nomelikhaya. It is because of such practices that women feel inferior even with the smallest things like naming or passing on of names.

Within amaXhosa and some African cultures when a boy child is born the family celebrates because that child will hold and continue the name of the family and when a girl is born, names like ‘Yamnkela’ (accept) are given because even though the child will not pass on the name of the family they will learn to accept it.

The elevation of the practice of patriarchy to a position of hegemony in South African society can be described as the birth of a so-called ‘hypernorm’ (Visagie & Pretorius, 1993:54). In the face of such a ‘hypernorm’, all other practices, values and institutions that have legitimate claims to diverse and unique spheres of competence and existence are subordinated (Schoeman, 1998:13). This means that the assumed ‘superior position’ of the male sex is erroneously given the status of a norm, a hypernorm, thus regulating human behaviour in all spheres of life, and subjugating all other values and standards (Visagie & Pretorius, 1993:54).

4.8 Semantics of amaXhosa Surnames In an attempt to revive the old naming patterns and to reclaim their African identity, some South African men adopted the traditional form of address in an incorrect form, where they use a prefix, the possessive prefix ‘ka’ added to their clan-names (surnames) instead of their father’s names. It is conceivable that most of them do not know how their surnames originated, and in almost all cases their surnames are not their father’s names. Thus by saying Themba kaGqubule, a person is not using a traditional form of address, but confusing his identity, because he is not a son of Gqubule, as the surname might have been derived from other means than a person’s name. Even if it was derived from a person’s name like Zulu for instance, Zulu might not have been the father, but the great grandfather of that particular person.

Some surnames possessed by Africans nowadays have been derived from Euro-western languages as indicated in the above discussions. These surnames are a result of cultural integration among Africans and Europeans, but some of them are a result of devaluing African names, where Africans were given Afrikaans names and surnames and encouraged to assume new identities. Although the prefix ka- is purely an Nguni prefix, it is now used in conjunction with other names originating from European languages. Thami kaPlaatjie is one interesting example, mainly because of his African ideals. Plaatjie is an Afrikaans diminutive of the word ‘plaat’. It is likely that Plaatjie is not Thami’s father’s name, but it links him to his ancestry.

When people start realising that they are overusing the possessive prefix ka-, it is possible that traditional forms of address among South African men might resurface. It is unknown whether these will be formally incorporated in the official register of names in South Africa. I am yet to come across a person having a name with the possessive prefix ka- in their identity document. The orthography of the surnames with ka- is not standardised. For example while some write it with the capital letter 'ka', others write it with a small letter 'ka\ In some instances the possessive prefix is separated from the possessor.

The latter form, wa ka is also used in Xitsonga language and in some Nguni languages (waka or wakwa), meaning of such a family or surname. For example, in isiXhosa language when a person is asked “ungowakwabani (What is your surname?)”, the answer will be ndingowakwaZingela (my surname is Zingela). The latter form wakwa is still used by many young men and women in places like social media or when they are introducing themselves.

4.9 Conclusion AmaXhosa surnames are said to be ‘sir names’ and not of African origin, but understanding their history and meaning helps people identify with the names they carry. This because even among amaXhosa surnames there are European surnames, which unlike amaXhosa surnames, they have a European ancestry. Even amongst those European surnames, there are surnames which have been transphologised because of pronunciation errors because surnames were introduced to Africans during the colonial time as indicated in this chapter.

AmaXhosa surnames are not a single entity but build from other names, like father’s names, place names, nicknames, and occupation names and in other African cultures from clan names. Many amaXhosa surnames are more like common nouns and differ to other African cultures because amaXhosa do not use clans as their surnames.

This chapter has then further elaborated on the available literature that underpins the notion of surnames and naming. Furthermore, examples of different kinds of surnames (particularly amaXhosa) that are derived from the literature and personal observation have been given as examples in order to further set the scene for the data presentation and analysis chapters that follow. In the next chapter a morphological analysis of amaXhosa surnames that were collected at Home Affairs is presented and the debate is further linked to the cultural underpinnings of surnames.

CHAPTER 5: MORPHOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SOME AMAXHOSA SURNAMES

5.1 Introduction Bonvillain (1997:1) makes the following comment about the relationship between morphology (word structure) and culture (language use): Language is an integral part of human behaviour. It is the primary means of interaction between people. Speakers use language to convey their thoughts, feelings, intensions and desires. Language is enriched by the uses that people make of it. These uses and the meanings transmitted are situational, social and cultural.

It is difficult to divorce the naming process from the use of language as a means of communication, especially among Africans. Naming is part of the language and culture. Whenever morphemes are put together to produce a new word, this new word is carefully coined to carry the message transmitted by the name-giver. The feelings and intentions of the name-giver are immediately revealed through the name. When these morphemes are combined together to form a word, be it a verb, compound, copulative, or qualificative, they follow a particular pattern.

According to Bonvillain (1997: 27): Words have referential senses, labelling persons, objects, events in the world, or in thought and imagination. Words also have cultural meaning, reflecting attitudes, values or shared symbols (e.g. apple pie). Words and sentence constructions can have situational relevance, some used in formal contexts and others in informal situations.

This means that words are not used without purpose. The coining of these new words, is intended to produce a particular meaning.

5.2 Morphology defined Proper names are generally names of persons, animals, products, places and personified characters in fictitious contexts. They are also known as proper nouns. There are opposing views with regard to whether or not proper names have any semantic content (Valentine, Brennen & Brédart, 1996; Lyons, 1999; Cruse, 2000). One view is that they do not, since they only denote an individual, nothing more. Another view is that they do have sense and

68 they denote one-member sets. Both views, however, state or imply that proper names constitute unique references.

The proper name is used in communication to enable identification, that is, it makes unique reference to a particular identifiable entity. When the speaker thus uses a proper name he is making reference to one, and only one individual or entity. The common noun, on the other hand, may refer to any member of a class of entities. The proper name serves the same basic function cross-linguistically. The naming traditions and patterns mainly reflect a people’s culture and, as such, there are bound to be characteristic features peculiar to a particular language. While it may be necessary to try and look systematically at the grammar of proper names mainly as lexical units, it is also important to look beyond the unit, given the role of agreement morphology in the syntax of the language.

Contrary to popular belief, not every personal name in Northern Sotho has a clear meaning. There is a growing tendency to try and reconstruct every personal name in order to make a synchronic recovery of their semantic content because of the fashionable view that ‘all African names mean something’. Efforts at forcing meaning (formally and informally) out of some traditional proper names are often either or both inaccurate and downright ridiculous, and therefore seem fruitless. Some traditional names that are carried over from generation to generation do not have clear derivational origins, and therefore seem to fit the general view that proper names are expressions with no sense. Another possibility is that their origins may be so archaic that the senses have been lost over generations.

However, in such traditional names there is generally a clear guidance with regard to the masculinity and femininity of the referent. The names have an inherent semantic feature [±male], subject to the naming patterns of a particular clan. Just as it may not be appropriate to name a girl John and a boy Elizabeth, in amaXhosa culture it would be odd to name a girl Masixole or Mzimkhulu and a boy Mandisa or Zintle. Some names have, therefore, inherent information about the gender of its bearer, even though this is not always the case. The name- giving patterns of a specific clan or dialectal group, coupled with cross-marriages, may see these conventions violated to a minimal extent. However, this would not be the norm but rather a generally understood deviation from semantic regularity. Morphology is the study of the structure of words. It is a branch of linguistics dealing with the forms and formation of words. Bonvillain (1997), Zungu (1999), Aronoff (1979), Nida

(1976), Kosch (1997), Matthews (1991) and Haspelmath (2002) all agree that morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and that it also shows how morphemes are systematically arranged to create the meaning of a word. Zungu (1999: 76) further defines morphology as the internal structure of a word that can be identified as being either a self- standing lexical item, conveying the basic meaning as found in the lexicon, or a cluster of elements comprising, beside the lexical item or stem, one or more affixes, that is, particulars added before (= prefix), or after (= suffix), or within (= infix) the stem to convey additional grammatical meaning(s).

Therefore, morphology is that important part of grammar/linguistics that specializes in the study of the anatomy of word categories found in all languages of the universe. Morphology deals with how different word categories are composed, i.e. how morphemes are arranged during the developmental stage of a word. If the morphemes are poorly arranged, that particular word will lack recognizable meaning in that specific language. Personal names are nouns, and by virtue of the fact that they are made up of meaningful sequences of sound (morphemes), they carry meaning.

Words are constituted of different morphemes. A morpheme can be defined as a minimal unit having more or less constant meaning and more of less constant form. It is through these morphemes that words become meaningful. Bonvillain (1999), Fromkin and Rodman (1993), Kosch (2006), Rankhododo (1999), Guma (1971), Nida (1976), Haspelmath (2002) and Van der Spuy (1989), define a morpheme as the smallest unit/constituent of a word that cannot be further analyzed or broken down. They agree that morphemes play an important role in assigning meanings to words.

Examples of these different morphemes are as follows (Mandende, 2009) • The meaningful parts into which words can be divided e.g., boldest can be divided into bold+est--are called the morphemes of the language. These are considered the basic units of meaning in a particular language.

• Words that have meaning by themselves - boy, food, door - are called lexical morphemes. Those words that function to specify the relationship between one lexical morpheme and another - words like at, in, on, -ed, -s - are called grammatical morphemes.

• Those morphemes that can stand alone as words are called free morphemes (e.g., boy, food, in, on). The morphemes that occur only in combination are called bound morphemes (e.g., - ed, -s, -ing). • Bound grammatical morphemes can be further divided into two types: inflectional morphemes (e.g., -s, -est, -ing) and derivational morphemes (e.g., ful, -like, -ly, un-, dis-). • Processes of word-formation can be described.

Haspelmath (2002) regards morphemes as morphological atoms, the ultimate elements of morphological analysis. Morphemes such as prefixes and suffixes, when affixed to a root, modify the meaning of the root in terms of class, gender, place, and time and word category. Morphemes can also be regarded as meaning moulders.

5.3 Surnames as verb stems Verb stems carry the meaning of the sentence. They show the action carried out by the subject of the sentence. The verb stem consists of the root and verb suffix. The important element of the verb stem is the root, because the root assigns the meaning of the verb stem. Coates (1999: 27) sees the root as the key element to which other parts of the word are added. Kosch et al. (2004: 43) define the root as follows: The root or stem forms the core of the derived word. In the African languages its meaning is often only an approximate one, which is narrowed down to a specific meaning once it is combined with the other constituent(s) of the word.

A root can, therefore be understood as the foundation on which a word is built. A root carries the core meaning of the verb. Poulos (1990: 153) notes: The verb root represents the “core” of the verb – the part that expresses the basic meaning of the verb.

From the surnames collected, many surnames were from verb stems, some were not easy to explain because they were missing the prefix ‘uku-‘. Some of these surnames are as follows:

a) Yeko - This surname is from the verb stem – yeka, which means stop and with the prefix ‘uku-‘ it would be ukuyeka (to stop). The word yeko is just another name of yeka, and they differ with the last vowel and translation. Uyeko is Stopping and ukuyeka is To stop.

b) Ncame – This surname is from the verb stem ncama, which means give up, with the prefix ‘uku-‘ it would be ukuncama (to give up). The surname Ncame differs with the last vowel from ncama, and the last vowel ‘e’, represents a stative verb which could also be missed read as past tense, for example ‘ndincame imali yam yokugqibela”.

c) Mzamo – This surname is from the verb stem zama, which means try, with the prefix ‘uku- it would be ukuzama (to try). Mzamo as a surname could have come from a personal name, usually given to male children.

d) Tsotsa – This surname is the same as the verb stem tsotsa, which means rob, with the prefix ‘uku- it would be ukutsotsa (to rob). The surname could have been a nickname before for someone who stole things.

e) Mahote – This surname comes from the verb stem hota, which refers to the initiation into the new family- A period after a woman becomes married during which she works hard to serve her in-laws. Often this period lasts from marriage to the birth of a couple’s first child, a year or so later. With the prefix ‘uku-‘ it would be ukuhota. The surname’s last vowel ‘e’ shows past tense and the prefix ‘ma’ shows the name might have belonged to a woman, because the prefix is sometimes used in female names.

5.4 Surnames derived from nouns The simplest definition of a noun is a thing and nouns are the basic building blocks of sentences. These things can represent a person, animal, place, idea, emotion - almost anything that you can think of. There are several categories of nouns, and there can be an overlap across the categories. For example, there are common and proper nouns etc. Proper nouns are the names that identify someone or something, a person or a place, and proper nouns are capitalized. An example of this in the surnames collected are the ones below:

a) Msweli – This surname is evident that it was taken from someone’s name (particularly a nickname). Probably the person lacked something, it could be food, cattle or good etc. b) Sontsele - Father of Ntsele/A Warrior- according to the Hlubi clan. c) Teyi- From the personal name Tateyi.

d) Kanana- Meaning Canaan, a place in the Bible that is said to be a promised land filled with milk and honey. e) Matshaya – Name of an ancestor in the Xesibe Clan (amaKhuma) f) Dyakopu – This surname was transphologised from the English personal name Jacob, the reason for this was because amaXhosa were unable to pronounce nor write some names and just like the whites they pronounced them as they heard them.

Common nouns are words used to name general items rather than specific ones. For example if you walk into a living room, what do you see? A lamp, a chair, couch, window, – all these items are named using common nouns. Common nouns are everywhere, and you use them all the time even if you do not realize it. We use common nouns to denote a class of objects or a concept. So, you can recognize a common noun by the fact it is not capitalized, but also common nouns can also be identified because they are referring to non-specific things or classifications (Machaba, 2004). Below are some surnames collected derived from common nouns:

a) Mtshini - Meaning Machine, taken from the common noun umatshini which belongs to class 1a. b) Cici – This surname was taken from class noun 9 icici, which means an earring, it could also mean brim (being at risk, for example “utata usecicini lokufa”). c) Zinto – Means Things, taken from class noun 9 izinto.

5.5 Surnames derived from Negative Phrases Guerini (2005:7) concurs: Naming practices in African societies represent a form of indirect and implicit communication with the community at large, which allows the expression of potentially embarrassing surrounding feelings and thought avoiding direct confrontation, which may compromise the relationship among members in a group or in a speech community.

I agree with the above statement, because many surnames reflect negative connotations, and the person given the name, shows how they were treated in the community or how the relationship was with the name-giver.

This emphasizes that naming in Africa (particularly amaXhosa) is another way of communication. Nkumane (1999: 55) agrees: Name-giving according to this observation provides an outlet for the regulation of social relations in the communities. It allowed people to communicate their feelings indirectly, without overt confrontation and possible conflict.

Many surnames are linked to other names, therefore they have adopted the naming of the names they were taken from, whether it is a personal name or a nickname. Therefore, some of these surnames are built from negative phrases and they are as follows:

a) Nkume - Centipede

b) Tsostsa - To rob

c) Magwala - From the noun ‘gwala’, meaning to be scared

d) Mthakathi - Witch, mostly was given and still is associated with women

e) Nkewana - From the word ‘inkewu’, which means fool. Inkewana is young man who is referred to as a fool

f) Ntengento - Something that is nothing. Huge negative connotative, because some people back in the days were poor and had no good to survive with their families

g) Nomoyi – Lice eggs: when one is given this name they are referred to be a blood- sucker.

h) Mthwalo - Burden/Hardship, one could have gotten the name because they were always asking from others and had nothing, for example food.

5.6 Surnames derived from commands A command is known as an imperative. Its purpose is to tell someone to do something. Command has a positive and negative form. A command also encompass request, wnarings and invitations. Every single command has the same subject marker which is you, because commands are always speaking to someone or something. There are many surnames, which are derived from commands and below are some that I have collected:

a) Bonga - Thank you

b) Vayi - Go

c) Gqoloza - Look deep

d) Ginya - Swallow

e) Zingela - Hunt

f) Mange - Embrace

5.7 Conclusion AmaXhosa surnames are an indispensable part of the language. In order to understand their meaning, the structure of the different word categories from which they are formed and the cultural background should also be taken into consideration. The surnames cannot be divorced from the original names and context in which they were created. Looking at the morphology of these surnames reveals the original structure of these surnames is that of verbs and other grammatical forms.

People use language to express themselves, and this is done using words. This means that if there are no words, there can be no sentences and no meaning. Therefore, it needs to be understood that even the personal name that these surnames were derived from, they also were formed from words, and like language personal names are carriers of meaning, particularly among Africans. In this chapter, the morphological make-up of surnames has been analysed, using examples of amaXhosa surnames. In the chapter that follows the data

75 which was collected at Home Affairs in Grahamstown-Makhanda, including the interviews, is presented and analysed further.

CHAPTER 6: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

6.1 Introduction An important aspect about data analysis in qualitative research is the search for meaning through direct interpretation of what is observed, and what is experienced and reported by the subjects. Bogdan and Biklen (2003) define data analysis as “working with the data, organizing them, breaking them into manageable units, coding them, synthesizing them, and searching for patterns. Yin (2003) states that in the process, the researcher concentrates on the whole data first, then attempts to take it apart and re-constructs it again more meaningfully. The process of data collection begins with the categorization and organization of data in search of patterns, critical themes and meanings that emerge from the data.

A main advantage of content analysis is that it helps in the data collected being reduced and simplified, while at the same time producing results that may then measure using quantitative techniques. Moreover, content analysis gives the ability to researchers to structure the qualitative data collected in a way that satisfies the accomplishment of research objectives. Data collection and analysis inform or drive each other, with the result that the analysis becomes a higher-level synthesis of the information (Yin, 2003). In this study, the interviews, were recorded and transcribed. A couple of open-ended questions were posed to which some of the participants were able to answer. The individual responses were analyzed, compared, and categorized, so that information cannot be repeated, and to be able to draw conclusions from the information provided by the participants.

6.2 The Interviews Findings The data that is presented below was collected and recorded and transcribed. The data presented is a summary of the findings of the questions below, and some direct quotes from the participants will also appear in parts of the data presentation. The interview data was collected through qualitative methods, however some of the findings (question 1, 2, 3,5,6 & 7 – see Appendix 3) will be presented quantitatively.

6.2.1 Question 1: What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? In this question, many people were able to provide/give out their surnames but understanding the meaning of their surnames for others was difficult or they had no knowledge at all. Most

77 of those who knew their surnames are those who had done background checks on the names they carry, and those whose surnames are common nouns, therefore it was easy to know its meaning of the word/verb the surname was taken from. The surnames (see Appendix 1) that were not explained or given meaning by some participants, were explained by doing background checks on the names and also breaking the word down morphologically to understand it, as has been done in chapter 5. All the surnames were given meanings and translated.

Below is a graph explaining how many people knew their surname meanings and those who did not:

Surname Meanings

Yes: 42.5% No: 57.5%

6.2.2 Question 2: Which gender do you think your surname represents? From secondary data collected it was evident that some names and surnames represent a certain gender and this question was to find out if people knew this, therefore finding out which gender their surnames represented. A few participants were able to explain why they think their surnames represent a certain gender, and some just picked a gender they thought their surnames represented. Some surnames that were explained were ‘Mahote’, which a participant said this surname represents the female gender because ‘ukuhota’ (a tradition related to marriage) is only done by females. Also the use of ‘Ma’ as a prefix, which is usually used in most female names.

Another surname that was said to represent the female gender was the surname ‘Mthakathi’ meaning ‘Witch’. This surname is one of the surnames with a bad connotation and back in the olden days amongst the African culture, witches were associated with females. Even though being a witch was associated with women, this does not mean men were not also witches. The surname ‘Zingela’ which means Hunt, the participant explained that back in the olden days in amaXhosa culture, men and women knew their positions in the family and hunting was left to men because they were seen as stronger than females. ‘Mthwalo’ (burden) was another surname, which was said to represent the male gender, the participant said “men usually carried burdens in their households”. As much as this explanation was vague, but I disagree with it because we first have to define what was meant by ‘burdens’ in the amaXhosa culture and not leave out that women who also had burdens to carry around the household.

Some participants who said their surnames represent the male gender was as a result of their parents marrying and linking that surname to their father. Some participants saw their surnames as gender-neutral, because they believed that their surnames could be used or stem from any gender, for example, surnames like ‘Ginya’ (swallow), and Nyulu (Innocent). Other participants had no knowledge of what gender their surnames represented, and looking through the data some of those who did not know, are those who did not know the meaning of their surnames and some did not think that their surnames represented any gender.

Below is graph explaining the results of gender in surnames:

Which gender does your surname represent?

Male: 45% Female: 30% Both: 13.75% Do not know: 11.25%

6.2.3 Question 3: Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? As stated in chapter 1, surnames have been defined to be ‘sir’ names meaning they are seen as names of forefathers and it was interesting to find out from the participants what they thought. Due to the fact that amaXhosa are a very unique culture it could be that some surnames are misinterpreted to be names of men rather than women. Looking at the results it seems it is the same in all cultures that these surnames are seen as names of men. What I find to be problematic about the findings is that no one questioned whether a forefather represented both male and female, therefore since the name ‘forefather’ is usually associated with men, it is difficult to shift from that view.

A participant expressed that “Males carry the lineage of surnames”, therefore many people including some participants believe that surnames stem from male names. There are very few surnames, or none that show a feministic side and even those that have been discovered have been historically checked, or the word broken down to understand its meaning. Some participants expressed that not all surnames are names of our forefathers (amaXhosa), especially those surnames that are of European descent.

Below is a graph showing the results of what participants answered in this question:

Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers?

Yes: 82.5% No: 17.5%

6.2.4 Question 4: What are your thoughts on ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? This question was very open ended and allowed participants to share whatever views they had about European surnames. As amaXhosa we have a number of European surnames used by amaXhosa, but their background is unknown to the African culture (and amaXhosa specifically). In order to understand some surnames one has to do a background check.Some of these surnames were discussed in chapter 4. Many participants gave out the same views and similar to the findings I have presented in chapter 4. Participants not only expressed their views about European surnames, but also about those that are using European surnames. Some responses were given in isiXhosa and then translated and below is a summary of the findings.

Some participants expressed that these surnames were enforced on black people by white people for their own convenience of referring to them. Many participants expressed that these European surnames were given to amaXhosa (African people also) during colonization, therefore they have no link to amaXhosa. It was expressed that the forefathers who had these surnames are from the West, and that it might be that during exile time great-grandparents met with men from the West and adopted such surnames, or they changed their names so that they will not be found. I agree with the above statement, because even in South Africa people were allowed to change their names and surnames, for their personal reasons.

A participant said “These surnames are used because Africa was colonized by Europeans and enslaved black people, thus, giving them their own surnames as means of owning them and that resulted to black people losing their original surnames and thus losing some of their roots”. The above viewpoint is one of the myths about European surnames used by Africans and has not been proved to be true. Rather, In my opinion, black people were given these surnames because the original surnames they had were hard to pronounce, therefore, they were given easier surnames to pronounce, or some of those surnames were misinterpreted. Some of these European surnames also came up because of malapropism.

Some participants shared views on how people previously wanted acceptance in the workplace, therefore using their employer’s surname, and this view also is similar to the above and still a myth about European surnames. Some participants even criticized those using European surnames by saying that “they are part of the disrespect of the Xhosa culture”. Those using these surnames are seen to be lost even though they have accepted these surnames, and even though they carry colonial baggage and a reminder of indignity of families that suffered during a brutal colonial time. Another participant even shared and said using a European surname amounts to “loss of identity”.

A participant expressed that these surnames should be changed, as they are not part of our culture as amaXhosa and who we are historically. The participant proceeded to say, “These surnames are inappropriate as they jeopardize the culture of the Xhosa people and because of this others tend to lack interest in knowing what their surnames would have been”. From the above views, participants felt that these surnames have no meaning and stopped the continuation of amaXhosa surnames and that results in someone not knowing their background.

6.2.5 Question 5: As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? Looking at how surnames are formulated and that they are mostly similar to common nouns, it was interesting to hear from participants who they think had a role in formulating them. Many participants expressed views that amaXhosa did not have an influence in the surnames they carry and that they just accepted them from the government of the time, because they were names of their forefathers. A participant particularly said, “These surnames were forced

82 on amaXhosa, they had no choice on names they wanted, therefore I do not think they even influenced the formulation”.

A few participants expressed that amaXhosa had an influence on the formulation of surnames. Some participants expressed the view that, if these surnames are names of forefathers, that means amaXhosa had an influence in the naming of those people, whether it be a personal name or a nickname, unless the person has a European surname then there is no influence, because the ancestral root is different from that of amaXhosa. A small amount of participants expressed that they do not know who had an influence on these surnames.

Below are results of how participants answered this question:

As amaXhosa do you think we had an influnce in the formulation of the surnames we adopted?

Yes: 16.25% No: 77.5% Do not know: 6.25%

6.2.6 Question 6: Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? Surnames are said to have links to clan names and amaXhosa use both. This research shows that amaXhosa people never had surnames before, but used class to differentiate between those with the same first name. Very few participants saw their surnames as being more important than clan names. In summary they thought clan names are irrelevant to the public eye because you use your name and surname on a daily basis. A participant said that, “A surname is important because it is used in high domains and recognised by the government

83 than a clan name”. I can agree with the above statement to a certain extent, but I do believe both these names are important because they play different roles in the life of amaXhosa.

Some participants expressed the above notion that both these names are important. A participant shared that, “They are both important because there is understanding that a surname is just a name used to distinguish the self, however a clan name is their identity, who they are”. In my viewpoint, I agree with the above notion, because if both these names are of forefathers they should be both important to an individual, but unfortunately not everyone will have the same view. Another participant said, “Both are important because I am from a mixed race family and my surname makes me resonate with my dad and clan name with my mother”.

A large number of participants said their clan name was more important, because “a clan name connects one to all the people in their lineage and they have not been influenced by whites,” said a participant. Some participants expressed that clan names show unity amongst families and those we do not know who have the same clan name. Some also expressed that unlike surnames, clan name hold the history of amaXhosa, because the clan praises are names of forefathers, therefore one knows their great great-grandfather through the clan praises and also what the clan was about and why they ended up with that clan name.

A participant said, “A clan name is more spiritual and cultural than a surname”, and I agree with that because clan names are a link to connect with the ancestors and they are used by amaXhosa to praise their ancestors when they are performing cultural rituals. Some participants expressed clan names as “a source of pride and identity”. This is because when an elder is greeting you, they first want to know your clan name (ungumni?) and your surname comes last. “Clan name because a surname can change anytime”, said a participant. This is very true, for example when a woman gets married, she changes her surname to her husband’s, but her clan name remains the same.

Below are the results of how participants answered this question:

Which one is more important to you your clan name or your surname? Why?

Clan name: 57.5% Surname: 10% Both: 32.5%

6.2.7 Question 7: Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we are now in, do you think we still need surnames. Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un-African? Surnames amongst African people are seen as names or a type of naming that came from the West. Therefore, I was interested to understand what the views of participants are as we have adopted these surnames, do they think they are un-African and are needed. Many participants expressed that we live in a space that does not accommodate people without surnames largely, because the systems that operate in our country are Eurocentric and would mostly want people to use their surnames, so it is better to respect them because they have been part of the amaXhosa people’s identity for a long time.

A few participants expressed that surnames should be respected and treated as African because we need them as they are names of forefathers. “We still need them because there are instances where there are people with the same clan name but surnames are different, therefore surnames can help trace where you come from” said a participant. Moreover, this is very true because when elders ask you your clan name and surname, they would automatically say, “Oh amaNgqosini akwaJohnson ngawase Tinarha” (The Ngqosini clan who are Johnsons are from Uitenhage). Another participant expressed that, “we use them at

85 work, at school and all around the world, and we have already respected them by using them in important domains”.

Some participants said we do not need them because they do not have an important meaning like clan names, because clan names give more understanding of who are amaXhosa originally, and they help with connecting to the ancestors. “We need them but do not have to respect their meaning. Meanings of some surnames are derogatory,” said a participant. A few participants expressed that they do not mind respecting surnames and treating them as African, but not European surnames because they have no African background. In relation to this another participant said, “why should we respect them when you can share the same surname as someone else in another race, people respect their clan names more and treat them as African.” A number of participants saw surnames as un-African, but said they will remain important because they are already part many people’s identities and we have no choice but to respect them because we need them.

Below are the results of how the participants answered:

Do you think we still need surname?. Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un-African?

Yes, needed: 83.75 No, not needed: 16.25 Treat African: 67.5 Treat un-African: 32.5

6.2.8 Question 8: What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming? As stated in chapter 4, this question was very confusing for participants, and many of them did not answer it and some had to go back to the line because they did not want to lose their

86 place in the que (at Home Affairs). This question came with different views and responses from participants on what amaXhosa should do when it comes to naming and how to teach others about naming.

Participants expressed that elders should play their role in educating the youngsters about the importance of surnames and their history. One participant in relation to the above statement said, “the community influenced how surnames are formed, because surnames were once names of people, so it is important to teach the history of surnames”. Others said the role of the community is to respect other’s names and how they have embraced the names, they carry.

6.3 Summary of Results In the sections above, I have captured and presented the findings of the research. When South Africans (and Africans as a whole) gained independence, one of the main objects was to revive the lost culture. Due to colonialism and apartheid black people are still yet to recover themselves in relation to certain aspects of their culture because some of it has been lost. Just like surnames which amaXhosa adopted from the apartheid government, they have accepted those names and embraced them because they were already part of their identity. Many might know the meaning of their surnames, but not all of them respect surnames and they still deem them as un-African.

A large group of amaXhosa view clan names more important than the surnames they have, even though they are said to be names of forefathers, but to them they are different because they have no connection to the spirit. It is evident that the surname is just a name to others, whilst a clan name defines the self, values, culture and norms. Therefore, just like in other Nguni languages or African languages surnames could have had a link to clan names of amaXhosa if they were given a chance to choose the names they wanted to carry. AmaXhosa might be seen as not having an influence in the formation of surnames, but they did because those isiXhosa surnames were once names and nicknames of others and therefore, they were given by the community of amaXhosa.

The above is evident in most surnames because some are from verb stems, proper nouns, common nouns, and commands. Therefore, before they became surnames they were words used and they became names, then surnames. The only surnames that amaXhosa did not have

87 an influence in are European surnames. Even though some might not respect these surnames, they recognize them when they are talking to ancestors, and others are not changing their surnames because they do not want to upset their ancestors, especially those who have European surnames.

Many do not support the use of European surnames by amaXhosa because they believe their ancestral root is not that of amaXhosa. People need to understand that others cannot just change those European surnames, because that is who they are, for example, people who come from mixed raced families. Living in a democratic and multilingual South Africa means that people need to be given the respect of choice to keep their names. Even though one gets recognized by their surname in the modern world and not their clan name, regardless of this amaXhosa believe their history is in clan names.

Gender in surnames has played an important and a critical role, because surnames are patriarchal and there are few surnames that represent the names of women. This is unfortunate because if surnames are names of forefathers, then that means women were not recognized as important and those who were seen as important are those who were rich or well known in society. Therefore, not only do surnames and clan names perpetuate patriarchy, but they perpetuate and force men to think that having sons is better than having daughters, because they believe having sons will continue their lineage, thereby entrenching patriarchy.

6.4 Conclusion This chapter discussed the data analysis and findings and presented them qualitatively and quantitatively. The data was collected using interviews with a cellphone and the interviews were transcribed as part of the methodology as explicated previously in chapter 3. In Chapter 7, the final chapter, the overall conclusion and recommendations are provided.

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION OF ALL FINDINGS

7.1 Introductions After each and every chapter a conclusion has been offered and the main aim of this chapter is to give a brief summary and recommendations for further study in onomastics.

7.2. Summary of the findings Names are an important factor in all societies and in the African culture they are not there without rationale or explanation. Despite apparent freedom when selecting a name for a child, people are actually constrained by a range of rules: linguistic, cultural, traditional and religious. While names cannot be legislated completely, social cooperation is essential if the name is to be successfully used, and patterns of name choice reflect the degree to which groups conform to these constraints. The rare cases in which namers assert their independence and flout linguistic and cultural expectations, often underlines the strength of these expectations for others. Thus a name can be a striking statement or a bland compliance with expectations, an expression of cultural pride or reconciliation, or a rejection of tradition.

We use names them to identify people and places etc, and they have different meanings to all of us. However, names like surnames are very difficult to explain or break down because of the time frame they were given in. The aim of this research was to investigate certain surnames used by amaXhosa (both African and European) and explain their semantics and morphology and educate others on where these surnames come from. On looking at amaXhosa surnames it was found that all surnames are not of African origin, they were enforced to the African nation. These surnames are said to be names of forefathers of amaXhosa, and the European surnames they are using were given to their fathers by their employers.

Many of amaXhosa surnames are patrilineal and there is a very few number of surnames that were taken from women. Therefore, that raises the question of gender in both names and surnames, because I had found that surnames cannot be distanced from gender, because these names that have now become surnames are a link to the history of amaXhosa. AmaXhosa surnames are said to have a link to other names and that was investigated in this study and found that some surnames were given to individuals because of places they came from, the places they worked in, their nicknames, names of their fathers and clan names.

A similar link from surnames and clan names was found because both these names of amaXhosa are said to be names of ancestors, excluding European surnames because their lineage in not of African origin.

In a paper (Johnson, 2019, presented at the ALASA Conference title ‘Johnson ‘MaGaba’ The Foreigner’), which forms part of the research for this thesis I looked into European surnames used by amaXhosa. The paper sought to investigate the origins of surnames of amaXhosa that are of European ancestry. Unlike amaXhosa surnames, European surnames do not have meaning to amaXhosa because they cannot link them to their history as indicated in chapter 1, and for that reason European surnames cannot be explained by those who have them, but with the help of dictionaries and the internet they have tried to trace what these surnames mean in their original languages. It is very difficult to carry a name and not know its origin because as said above the names we carry are part of our identity and therefore like other amaXhosa names it is important to know their origins and meanings and how they were adopted by Africans (especially South African amaXhosa people).

As stated in chapter 4 many people have changed these names and other have not because of different reasons. In South Africa, luckily people have a right to change their identity when they want to suit the lives they identify with. Many have voiced out that those with European surnames should change their surnames and adopt Xhosa surnames because carrying a white name is more like carrying colonial baggage. However, many have not changed these names because they are afraid that their ancestors will be angry with them and they might not be able to connect with them. Therefore, having a European surname is a win or lose situation in the African culture because names like surnames and clan names have been there for decades and it is difficult for others to just change them.

This research was done by interviewing participants and investigating how much they know about their surnames. Most of the time the information one needs is not in books but the community they live in. Therefore, the community has played a role of giving information, which will not only build the onomastics field but educate youngsters about the names they carry. The community needs to play a role in educating the young about these names, because there is so much history of amaXhosa in names. In summary the findings in this research were:

 Most participants knew their surnames but most do not know their meanings.  Participants think surnames represent males and names of forefathers more than females.  Participants say amaXhosa had no role in the formation of surnames.  Clan names are more important to amaXhosa than surnames  Surnames should be respected because they are still part of the identity of amaXhosa and they should be treated as African.

7.3 Recommendations * Many people do not know the meaning of their surnames and find it very diffivult to break downs even the Xhosa surnames they have, therefore societies should teach the younger ones about the history of the names they understand. Conducting community talks on names and also allow the youngerstes to share their understanding of some names.

* It is recommended that the name-givers should make use of naming practices with the ultimate aim of enhancing the amaXhosa tradition, culture and custom. This will make sure that the young generation will know and be proud that their tradition, culture and customs are of paramount importance.

* To open a space where people can share the meaning of their surnames, especially those who do not have an internet access, so that these surnames can be collected.

* To dissmanlte the ideas that some name belong to a certain gender, this is because a a large number of these surnames where taken from names of men, therefore, since surnames are inherited personal names should not be given according to gender but given because of inspirations and the parents’ wishes.

* To write a dictionary of surnames that will include the meaning of surname and their semantics and morphology, this will not only be an addition to the Onomastics field but also to the Lexicography field.

* While the new generation discards Euro-western names, some people (old generation) do not see the need to discard their Euro-western names. Research on this subject will contribute enormously to the field of onomastics.

Conclusion Even though the aim of this research was to analyze certain surnames adopted by amaXhosa, it also gave a chance to understand other names and the history of amaXhosa and the views people have about European surnames specifically. AmaXhosa surnames on their own have a rich history, that if they were explained and analyzed more, a light would be shed about the history of AmaXhosa that has been forgotten and that might change something in the new way of naming. Not only does this research add to the onomastics field but also to the link language has on society, linguistics of amaXhosa names and the history of amaXhosa.

Appendix 1: Surnames Collected

Surnames collected Meaning/Explanation and Translation

1. Mdlungu Umbungu –Caterpillar 2. Xhati From the word Ixhanti- A kraal 3. Teyi From the personal name Tateyi 4. Seti Set (European) 5. Klass From the English word Class, meaning a room to study in 6. Yeko From ukuyeka meaning to stop 7. Gumenge 8. Mthwalo Hardship/ Burden/Load, from the Xhosa noun Umthwalo 9. Lugadla ukomelela/ Into eqinileyo. Powerful/ energetic 10. Nyulu Clean/Pure 11. Songololo Millipede (One could have gotten this name because they were very slow, e.g. at work) 12. Nomoyi Lice eggs/also from a word of a tree 13. Kanana A place in the bible, which is said to be in heaven, a promised land with honey and milk. 14. Ncame From ukuncama- to give up 15. Sontsele Father of Ntsele/A Warrior- according to the Hlubi clan 16. Kulati It’s Late- A mixture of isiXhosa and Afrikaans (Kulaat)- One could have gotten this name because they said the praise repeatedly 17. October Name of the 10th month in the calendar- these calendar names were given according to names of missionaries that arrived that month. 18. Booi Freedom Lover, Playful, Friendly 19. Kondile From ukonda- deeply rooted 20. Sinxo 21. Bonga To thank you 22. Silumnko To be wise 23. Jwayiza 24. Loft Small room/Apartment 25. Mzamo Trying, from the verb ukuzama 26. Keye 27. Sikafu Scarf 28. Ntengento Something that is Nothing 29. Mbotoza 30. Ntulini dust -amaBhele 31. Smaile Smile 32. Mafuya From the word ukufuya 33. Vayi Vay- Gaan , from Afrikaans meaning Go

34. Kanyiso Light 35. Mbangi Reason 36. Daka Mud 37. Moss 38. Gqoloza To look deep 39. Mpekula From ukuphekuza 40. Ginya To swallow 41. Adam Bible name , first man to live in the bible 42. Tsengwe Ukutsefuza – Xhosa dialect isiBhaca 43. Nkewana Young man fools 44. Mhlambiso Iyeza (traditional medicine), from the word ukuhlamba 45. Zingela To hunt 46. Cekiso To be hated, from the word ukucekisa 47. Mthakathi Witch 48. Khephe Ubuciko - Well spoken 49. Songongo 50. Mtshini Machine 51. Mantolo 52. Mnyungula 53. Hina shortened hinina 54. Tyala Debt 55. Mahote From the word ukuhota- a process women undergo when they just got married/ how they dress when they just got married. 56. Magwala From the noun ‘gwala’ meaning a coward or a weakling 57. Mjikwa To be turned away or changed 58. Qilingele 59. Peter 60. Cici Earing/Brim(at risk) 61. Mamase 62. Dlwathi 63. Mange Embrace 64. Tsotsa From ukutsotsa meaning thieving 65. April Name of the 4th month in the calendar- these calendar names were given according to names of missionaries that arrived that month. 66. Msweli From ukuswela meaning to Lack 67. Zinto From noun Izinto, meaning Things 68. Zonke All 69. Dumse 70. Matshaya Clan Praise 71. Donkrag 72. Mhlungwini From the word ‘intlungu’ meaning pain. 73. Dyakopu Transphologised from the English word Jacob. 74. Ngcoko From the noun incoko, meaning a conversation.

75. Katu From the Xhosa expression ‘Mnka tuu’ meaning go and disappear. 76. Gcaba From ukugcaba, meaning to be Dry. 77. Plaatjie 78. Mpi From the noun Impi, meaning War. 79. Mxosa From the noun umXhosa, meaning a person from the Nguni tribe. 80. Nkume Centipede.

APPENDIX 2 INKCAZELO NGOPHANDO RESEARCH DESCRIPTION Olu phando lungeefani. Olu phando lungokufumanisa ukuba ifani zathi gqi njani kwaye zakhiwe njani ingakumbi ezamaXhosa. Olu phando luza kunceda ukongeza ulwazi ngakumbi kwifildi yofundo magama (onomastics), kwaye luncede abantu bacacelwe ngcono ngamagama abo nokubaluleka kwawo. Udliwano-ndlebe olu luza kunceda ukufumanisa ukuba abantu bacinga kwaye baqonda ntoni ngeefani zabo. Udliwano-ndlebe luza kuthatha imizuzu elushumi apho umthathi nxaxheba ezakubuzwa imibuzo esibhozo ubukhulu, kwaye udliwano-ndlebe olo luzakurekhodishwa ukonga ixesha. Iimpendulo ziza kugcinwa kuCloud, kwaye ngumphandi kunye nomphathi wakhe abazakuzijonga. Ezi mpendulo ziza kucinywa xa uphando lugqityiwe. Olu phando ayilulo olwaseHome Affairs, luphando lwesikolo olwenziwa ngumfundi waseRhodes Dyunivesithi

This research is about surnames. This research is about the finding out how surnames were constructed and particularly how amaXhosa people got their surnames. This research will help to add more information in the onomastic field and make people aware of the names they carry and their significance. The interviews will help shed light on what people think and understand about their surnames. The interviews will only take 10 minutes. The participants will be asked a maximum of 8 questions and will be recorded with a voice recorder to save time. The recorded responses will be stored on cloud and only the researcher and supervisor will have access to them. The responses will be deleted after the research has been completed.

This research in not an official home affairs research, it is conducted by a Rhodes University student for an academic research.

Do you agree to be asked these questions and recorded at the same time? Uyavuma ukubuzwa lemibuzo urekhodishwe?

Signiture/Utyikityo ……………………………………………

APPENDIX 3 Interview questions: 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? 2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? 3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? 4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? 5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? 6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? 7. Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we now in, do you think we still need surnames? Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un- African? 8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming?

1. Ngubani ifani yakho? Uyayayi qonda ukuba ithetha ukuthini? 2. Ucinga ukuba ifani yakho iloluphi usini? 3. Ucinga ukuba zonke ifani zisuka kumagama oobawo mkhulu ? 4. Zithini iingcinga zakho ngefani zaseNtsona ezisetyenziswa ngamaXhosa? 5. NjengamaXhosa ucinga ukuba besinempembelelo ukwakhiweni kwefani esazamnkelayo 6. Ngeyiphi ebalulekileyo kuwe isiduko okanye ifani, utsho ngoba kutheni? 7.Abaphandi abathile baxele bathi ukwankelwa nokusetyenziswa kweefani, kwakusenzelwa ukuhlula phakathi kwabantu ababenamagama afanayo. Ngokwalengxelo kwaye nakwi xesha esikulo ngoku ucinga ukuba sisazidinga iifani? Ucinga ukuba sihloniphe intsingiselo zazo banzi? Okanye siziphathe/ sizijonge ngokuba asizozase Afrika? 8.Ucinga ukuba yintoni indima yoluntu kwifani zamaXhosa nokuthiya?

APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE INTERVIEWS Interview 1 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? >Mhlambiso- I do not know what my surname means

2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? >I think Mhlambiso represents the male gender

3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? >I do not think that all surnames are names of forefathers

4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? >European surnames originate from missionaries/ colonisers who struggles to pronounce surnames of Xhosa origin

5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? >We had no influence to the formation of surnames

6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? In my opinion, I believe a clan name is more important as it originates back to ancestors/forefathers. Clan names are used in cultural rituals and are important in identifying Xhosa individuals.

7. Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we now in, do you think we still need surnames? Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un- African? >Surnames do not just differentiate people with the same name. Surnames are there to group blood relatives within the same clan name. Surnames are also important as they are the names of forefather’s surnames and their meaning should be respected more.

8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming?

> The community influences how people are named and should teach the new generations about surnames.

Interview 2 1. Ngubani ifani yakho? Uyayayi qonda ukuba ithetha ukuthini? >Ifani yam nguMafuya, ndicinga ukuba ngabantu abababesazisa ngokufuya

2. Ucinga ukuba ifani yakho iloluphi usini? >Ndicinga ukuba sisini somntu ongumama

3. Ucinga ukuba zonke ifani zisuka kumagama oobawo mkhulu? >Ewe ndicinga njalo

4. Zithini iingcinga zakho ngefani zaseNtsona ezisetyenziswa ngamaXhosa? >Ndicinga ukuba oobawo mkhulu babo ngabasentshona

5. NjengamaXhosa ucinga ukuba besinempembelelo ukwakhiweni kwefani esazamnkelayo? > Hayi, ngoba akukho nto isidibanisa nazo

6. Ngeyiphi ebalulekileyo kuwe isiduko okanye ifani, utsho ngoba kutheni? >Sisiduko ngoba siza nengcambu yabantu endiphuma kubo

7. Abaphandi abathile baxele bathi ukwankelwa nokusetyenziswa kweefani, kwakusenzelwa ukuhlula phakathi kwabantu ababenamagama afanayo. Ngokwalengxelo kwaye nakwi xesha esikulo ngoku ucinga ukuba sisazidinga iifani? Ucinga ukuba sihloniphe intsingiselo zazo banzi? Okanye siziphathe/ sizijonge ngokuba asizozase Afrika? > Ewe siyazidinga, sihlonipha intsingiselo yazo kuba yiyo ebalulekileyo

8. Ucinga ukuba yintoni indima yoluntu kwifani zamaXhosa nokuthiya? > Andinalwazi

Interview 3 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning?

> My surname is Mahote, I think it comes from the word ‘ukuhota’ which is the process undergone by women who just got married.

2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? >I think it represents the female gender but I am not sure about this

3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? >Yes I think they all come from them.

4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaxhosa? >I think the surnames were enforced on black people by the whites for their own convenience in calling them.

5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? >I do not think so, I think we just took the surnames that we got from our forefathers, who got them as either their names, from their parents, or from the whites

6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? >Clan name, because it connects me to all the people that are from the same lineage as mine and they have not been influenced by whites.

7. Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we now in, do you think we still need surnames? Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un- African? >The time we live in would not accommodate people without surnames largely because the systems that operates in our country are Eurocentric and therefore would mostly want people to use their surnames so we have to respect them

8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming? >I think the community’s role in surnames and names is having an influence in the names that we have and make sure that they have significance and meaning.

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Interview 4 1. Ngubani ifani yakho? Uyayayi qonda ukuba ithetha ukuthini? > Ifani yam nguNtengento kwaye ndiyayiqonda ukuba ithetha ukuthini. Ithetha umntu ongento.

2. Ucinga ukuba ifani yakho iloluphi usini? >Sisini somntu oyindoda

3. Ucinga ukuba zonke ifani zisuka kumagama oobawo mkhulu ? > Ewe

4. Zithini iingcinga zakho ngefani zaseNtsona ezisetyenziswa ngamaXhosa? > Ndicinga ukuba ezifani azifanelanga ukusetyenziswa ngabantu abangamaXhosa kuba kaloku azinantsingiselo kwaye ziqhawula ukuqhubekeka kweefani zoobawomkhulu bethu, nto leyo ibangela ukuba umntu angayazi imvelaphi yakhe.

5. NjengamaXhosa ucinga ukuba besinempembelelo ukwakhiweni kwefani esazamnkelayo >Ewe

6. Ngeyiphi ebalulekileyo kuwe isiduko okanye ifani, utsho ngoba kutheni? > Sisiduko kuba ngeyona ndlela siye sinxibelelane ngayo nezinyanya zethu kuba kaloku thina maxhosa sinamasiko nezithethe ekufuneka sizilandele.

7. Abaphandi abathile baxele bathi ukwankelwa nokusetyenziswa kweefani, kwakusenzelwa ukuhlula phakathi kwabantu ababenamagama afanayo. Ngokwalengxelo kwaye nakwi xesha esikulo ngoku ucinga ukuba sisazidinga iifani? Ucinga ukuba sihloniphe intsingiselo zazo banzi? Okanye siziphathe/ sizijonge ngokuba asizozase Afrika? > Ewe sisazidinga iifani kodwa andicingi ukuba kufuneka sihloniphe intlingiselo. Intsingiselo yefani ezininzi yayichaza indlela babemjonga ngayo abantu umntu, lonto yenze ezinye intsingiselo zinganambitheki.

8. Ucinga ukuba yintoni indima yoluntu kwifani zamaXhosa nokuthiya? >Uluntu lwadlala indima yokuthi luthiye amagama anentsingiselo.

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Interview 5 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? >My surname is Hina, I do not know the meaning of it.

2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? >Males

3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? >Yes

4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? >Those who use European surnames is because, Africa in the past was colonised by Europeans and enslaved black people thus giving them their own surnames as a means of owning them. And at time moved on black people lost the connection with their roots.

5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? > No, I do not believe so.

6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? > My clan name, because it helps me have an understanding and a sense of my ancestor’s origin.

7. Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we now in, do you think we still need surnames? Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un- African? >No, I believe surnames don’t have a more important meaning than our clan names. This is because our clan names give us an understanding of who we are as amaXhosa and helps us keep in touch with our roots. Unlike surnames where they do not have a deeper meaning like clan names, but we should respect them because they are part of our identity.

8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming?

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> The role of amaXhosa community I believe is to teach the young generation about their own origins an dexplain to them what happened when amaXhosa/ Africa was colonised.

Interview 6 1. Ngubani ifani yakho? Uyayayi qonda ukuba ithetha ukuthini? >Ifani yam nguSongololo, ithetha irhorho enemilenze emininzi emnyama

2. Ucinga ukuba ifani yakho iloluphi usini? >Ndicinga ukuba yeyezini zonke

3. Ucinga ukuba zonke ifani zisuka kumagama oobawo mkhulu ? >Ewe

4. Zithini iingcinga zakho ngefani zaseNtsona ezisetyenziswa ngamaXhosa? >Ndicinga ukuba oobawo mkhulu babo ngabasentshona

5. NjengamaXhosa ucinga ukuba besinempembelelo ukwakhiweni kwefani esazamnkelayo > Hayi

6. Ngeyiphi ebalulekileyo kuwe isiduko okanye ifani, utsho ngoba kutheni? >Sisiduko kuba siso esichaza imvelaphi yam

7. Abaphandi abathile baxele bathi ukwankelwa nokusetyenziswa kweefani, kwakusenzelwa ukuhlula phakathi kwabantu ababenamagama afanayo. Ngokwalengxelo kwaye nakwi xesha esikulo ngoku ucinga ukuba sisazidinga iifani? Ucinga ukuba sihloniphe intsingiselo zazo banzi? Okanye siziphathe/ sizijonge ngokuba asizozase Afrika? > Ewe sisazidinga iifani kodwa ndicinga ukuba masingazithathi njengamagama anentsusa yalapha eMzantsi Afrika, kuba sasingenazo iifani kudala.

8. Ucinga ukuba yintoni indima yoluntu kwifani zamaXhosa nokuthiya? > Andiwuqondi lombuzo

Interview 7 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning?

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> My surname is Smaile, it means a name of a month

2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? > Female

3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? > Yes, where else who they come from because the names we carry are of our forefathers

4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? >It is inappropriate to have them because it is not part of our culture, nor is it part of our history

5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? >Depending on what surname you have, because if you have a Xhosa surname then yes but if you have a European surname it would be disingenuous to say amaXhosa influenced that.

6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? >Clan name, because these are the names of our forefathers and the history of my family, and you find that you are related to people that you do not even know and that is because you share the same clan name

7. Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we now in, do you think we still need surnames? Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un- African? >Yes, because you can get recognition by your surname in the modern world instead of your clan name. I respect my clan name more than my surname because that is where my history lies.

8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming? > The role of amaXhosa community is to provide more knowledge regarding the role of colonisation in creating European surnames for blacks and teach amaXhosa that one is not

104 less of a Xhosa just because they have a European surname. These kinds of discussions are important when we are discussing colonisation.

Interview 8 1. Ngubani ifani yakho? Uyayayi qonda ukuba ithetha ukuthini? >Ifani yam nguTeyi, ligama likakhokho kakhokho

2. Ucinga ukuba ifani yakho iloluphi usini? > Ifani yam imele umntu oyindoda

3. Ucinga ukuba zonke ifani zisuka kumagama oobawo mkhulu? >Kuthi maXhosa ewe.

4. Zithini iingcinga zakho ngefani zaseNtsona ezisetyenziswa ngamaXhosa? >Ezifani zisuka kumagama ookhkho abawafumana kubantu abamhlophe ngexesha lengcinezelo.

5. NjengamaXhosa ucinga ukuba besinempembelelo ukwakhiweni kwefani esazamnkelayo? >Ewe ndicinga njalo, ngoba ibonisa ubuqhawe kulowo kuthwe kwasetyenziswa igama lakhe kwaye,ezinye ifani zinentsingiselo nto leyo ethi llamagama asuka kubantu besiXhosa

6. Ngeyiphi ebalulekileyo kuwe isiduko okanye ifani, utsho ngoba kutheni? >Yifani, ngoba yiyo endiyisebenzisa kakhulu

7. Abaphandi abathile baxele bathi ukwankelwa nokusetyenziswa kweefani, kwakusenzelwa ukuhlula phakathi kwabantu ababenamagama afanayo. Ngokwalengxelo kwaye nakwi xesha esikulo ngoku ucinga ukuba sisazidinga iifani? Ucinga ukuba sihloniphe intsingiselo zazo banzi? Okanye siziphathe/ sizijonge ngokuba asizozase Afrika? >Ewe, siyazidinga ngoba zibonisa ukukhetheka kwethu nokubaluleka kwaye masizihloniphe iintsingiselo zeefani.

8. Ucinga ukuba yintoni indima yoluntu kwifani zamaXhosa nokuthiya? > Andiwuqondi lombuzo

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Interview 9 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? >My surname is Mtakathi, it means witch

2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? > Witchcraft in my culture is usually associated with women, so I assume it represents the female gender

3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? > I believe so

4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? > I think they are mainly associated with colonialism, most Xhosa people ended up using their employer’s surnames to be accommodated within their working spaces during the colonialism era

5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? >I have no idea

6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? >They are both important to me. My surname is just a name I use to distinguish myself, however my clan name is my identity, it is who I am.

7. Some researchers have stated the adoption of surnames was to differentiate between people who have the same first name. In light of that statement and the time we now in, do you think we still need surnames? Should we respect their meaning more? Or treat them as un- African? >They are right. I agree with them, I still think we need them to differentiate ourselves from other people. They should be treated with respect at all times and should be treated as African.

8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming?

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> The community influences and emphasises the importance of surnames as it reveals ones identity in the living world.

Interview 10 1. What is your surname and what is your understanding of its meaning? > My surname is Sontsele, I do not know its meaning.

2. Which gender do you think your surname represents? > I think both genders

3. Do you think all surnames are names of forefathers? > Yes

4. What are your thoughts to ‘European’ surnames used by amaXhosa? > I think they are used because of the apartheid government that sometimes gave English names or names that they could pronounce.

5. As amaXhosa do you think we influenced the formation of the surnames we adopted? >I do not think so

6. Which one is more important to you, your clan name or your surname? Why? >Surname, because it is a little bit private than my clan name and I use it often than my clan name

8. What do you think is the role of community with regards to amaXhosa surnames and naming?

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>The Xhosa community names their children names that have a significant meaning or message to them, with the hope that they will live up to the names they are given. Therefore, amaXhosa community promote the existence of surnames and names

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APPENDIX 5 INGCAZELO NGOPHANDO RESEARCH DESCRIPTION Olu phando lungeefani. Olu phando lungokufumanisa ukuba ifani zathi gqi njani kwaye zakhiwe njani ingakumbi ezamaXhosa. Oluphando luzakunceda ukongeza ulwazi ngakumbi kwifildi yofundo magama (onomastics), kwaye luncede abantu bacacelwe ngcono ngamagama abo nokubaluleka kwawo. Udliwano-ndlebe olu luzakuceda ukufumanisa ukuba abantu bacinga kwaye baqonda ntoni ngeefani zabo. Udliwano-ndlebe luzakuthatha imizuzu elushumi apho umthathi nxaxheba ezakubuzwa imibuzo esibhozo ubukhulu, kwaye udliwano-ndlebe olo luzakurekhodishwa ukonga ixesha. Iimpendulo zizakugcinwa kuCloud, kwaye ngumpandi kunye nomphathi wakhe abazakuzijonga. Ezi mpendulo zizakucitywa xa uphando lugqityiwe. Olu phando ayilulo olwase Home Affairs, luphando lwesikolo olwenziwa ngumfundi waseRhodes Dyunivesithi

This research in not an official home affairs research, it is conducted by a Rhodes University student for an academic research. IFOM YESIVUMELWANO CONSENT FORM

Bhala i-iinishiyali zakho ecaleni kwengxelo ukuba uyavuma

Add your initials next to the statement if you agree

109

Ndiyaqinisekisa ukuba ndilufundile ndaluqonda ulwazi lomxhathi nxaxheba ulucacisa ngoluphando kwaye ndinemvume yokubuza nayiphi na imibuzo ngoluphando.

I confirm that I have read and understand the Participant Information Sheet explaining the above research project and that I have had the opportunity to ask questions about the project.

Ndiyaqonda ukuba andinyanzelwa ukuthatha inxaxheba ndingarhoxa nanini ngaphandle kwesizathu kunye neziphumo ezibi. Kwaye ukuba andifuni ukuphendula umbuzo othile, ndivumelekile ukungaphenduli.

I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time without giving any reason and without there being any negative consequences. In addition, should I not wish to answer any particular question or questions, I am free to decline.

Ndiyavuma ukuba ifani yam ingasetyenziswa koluphando kodwa igama lam kunye neempendulo zam zibe yimfihlo.

I agree on the usage of my surname in the study but my name and responses will be anonymous.

Ndiyavuma ukuba kudliwano-ndlebe umphandi andirekhodishe.

I agree to be recorded during each interview, and to the use of this recording for transcription purposes

Ndiyavuma ukuba iimpendulo zam kudliwano-ndlebe nobhalo lwazo, zisetyenziswe kushicelelo loluphando.

I agree that my responses during the interviews, including the transcripts and excerpts thereof, may be used in publications arising from the research, including, but not limited to, the researcher’s MA thesis, and articles published in journals.

Ndinikela imvume kumphandi ukuba asebenzise iimpendulo zam ezirekhodishiweyo nezibhaliwe, kwaye azigcine ngokukhuselekileyo kwiserva yaseRhodes Dyunivesithi.

I give permission the researcher to have access to my responses, in the form of both the audio recordings and the transcripts. I give permission that the recordings and transcript may be securely stored on Rhodes University server.

Ukuba ufuna ukuxelelwa ngeziphumo zophando ungafaka inombolo zakho zomnxeba. Ukuba awufuni ungazifani

If you want feedback of the research results please provide contact details. If not do not provide contact details.

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Ifani yomthathi nxaxheba

Surname of participant

Utyikityo lomthathi nxaxheba

Participant’s signature

Umhla

Date

Igama lomphandi

Name of lead researcher

Utyikityo

Signature

Umhla

Date

111

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